Is It Really That Simple?

"Why go out of your way to give me this?"

Inside the restaurant, Satsu carefully held the rabbit doll in his hands and asked in a soft voice.

Unlike the others, this rabbit doll was entirely black. Its ears drooped listlessly, and its arms and legs were curled up, making it look very cute.

"Because~ you treated me to a meal, so I had to get you something in return. Besides, I thought it suited you!"

Arisu spoke with a playful lilt. Paired with her snow-white slip dress, it made her seem especially endearing.

"Really? I like it a lot."

Though he said that, a faint trace of loneliness slipped across Satsu's face.

He was genuinely happy to receive a gift—if only there weren't a miniature camera inside the rabbit doll.

"I'm glad you like it. Its eyes can see the stories that will happen to you in the future." (Sakayanagi Arisu)

Satsu clearly heard Arisu's inner thoughts. He already knew she wanted him to drop out, so the meaning behind those words was obvious.

At some point in the future, something would happen to Satsu, and the rabbit doll's eyes would be able to see it.

Naturally, that led to the conclusion that the doll had a miniature camera hidden inside it.

"See what'll happen to me?" Satsu murmured in confusion.

Then he cupped the rabbit doll in both hands and asked it in the sort of voice one might use to coax a child, "Little bunny, little bunny, what's going to happen to me?"

As he spoke, he brought the doll's head up to his ear and listened with exaggerated seriousness, as if it could really talk.

"Next, Sae will frame you and get you expelled." (Sakayanagi Arisu)

After learning what Arisu was thinking, Satsu slightly rephrased her words and said them aloud.

"Hmm~ The little bunny says a girl will come see me later. It also told me to be careful."

At that, Arisu's expression froze for an instant, but she quickly composed herself.

Sae betrayed me? No! That's impossible. The deal between Satsu and Kuraku really exists.

Going over to the enemy in this situation would be suicide. No one could be stupid enough to do that.

After thinking it over again and again, Arisu still chose to trust her judgment. She spoke playfully.

"Really? Then you'd better listen carefully to what the little bunny says~"

As soon as he got back to his dorm, Satsu couldn't wait to remove the miniature camera from the rabbit's eye.

Looking at the tiny sphere in his hand, Satsu couldn't help marveling at its craftsmanship. It was impossible to spot with the naked eye.

After confirming there were no bugs or miniature cameras on him, Satsu sat quietly on his bed and waited for Sae to show up.

If the other party was determined to make him drop out, then even if he found a way to avoid this crisis, he would only be faced with more difficult problems.

He might as well confront this problem head-on and resolve it, so they would think twice before trying anything next time!

Sure enough, at eight that evening, the doorbell to Satsu's room rang with a crisp "ding-dong."

Through the peephole, Satsu saw what Sae was wearing: a sexy businesswoman's outfit. Her grayish-white pencil skirt perfectly outlined her curvy figure.

Best of all were the gold-rimmed glasses. On Sae's face, they were the perfect finishing touch.

"Looking at her like this, the woman's actually pretty attractive. No wonder Kuraku is so infatuated with her," Satsu murmured.

"But isn't this a little too obvious?" (Kato Satsu)

"Before this, Sae and I barely had any contact at all. If someone like her suddenly shows up at my door, even an idiot would be suspicious." (Kato Satsu)

"Given Arisu's genius character, would she really choose Sae to carry out her plan?" (Kato Satsu)

Satsu's hand lingered on the doorknob for a long time. Should he play along, or... expose their plan outright?

In truth, Satsu wasn't worried about what Arisu's plan was.

After all, the moment he saw Sae through the peephole, he had already learned everything through his mind-reading ability.

She would take off her clothes as soon as she came in, then Hashimoto and Kamuro would rush in with a video camera and accuse Satsu of trying to rape a female student.

"But then, what's the point of the miniature camera? Is it there to make the plan fail?" (Kato Satsu)

"And is it a little too arrogant and far-fetched to think that the footage Hashimoto and Kamuro get the moment they walk in will be enough to convict me?" (Kato Satsu)

So far, Arisu's plan was riddled with holes. That only left Satsu even more baffled.

In the end, Satsu opened the door and let Sae in.

There was something inexplicably strange about the atmosphere. Neither of them spoke, but both had plenty on their minds.

"Ah! No!"

After hesitating for a few seconds, Sae finally made her move.

She let out a scream as she violently and haphazardly tore at her clothes. She only stopped when she had exposed herself, then looked at Satsu.

He hadn't seen any of it. With his hands over his head, he crouched in a corner, facing away from Sae.

"Is this a normal reaction for a man?!" (Yamamoto Sae)

What kind of idiot wouldn't take advantage of an opportunity like that?

Besides, a normal man would just close his eyes and turn his head away. It was a sudden situation, after all.

Satsu's posture made it entirely reasonable to think he'd known in advance that Sae would do this.

Seeing that no one could mistake this scene for a crime if they recorded it, Sae simply went over and hugged Satsu from behind as he crouched on the ground.

"Ah! Don't, big sis!" Satsu cried in a shrill voice.

The shout nearly made Sae's brain shut down. A grown man, saying something like that in front of a nearly naked woman?

Talk about turning the world upside down!

"Wait! You—" Sae's voice held confusion and a trace of anger.

Satsu didn't care. He kept screaming at the top of his lungs, "No! Don't do that!"

Hashimoto and Kamuro were supposedly the first two to arrive at the scene, but in reality, they had been hiding in the corridor nearby.

What they saw was not the scene they had expected: a disheveled woman was tussling with a man.

Satsu seemed completely resistant. His voice sounded innocent, with a hint of bashfulness, while Sae was clearly the one in control.

Hashimoto simply lowered the video camera in his hands and said helplessly, "So... who's harassing whom here?"