Ryuen

Two days after the Old School Building incident, Kanzaki Toru was stopped in the hallway.

It wasn't Ishizaki, or Kondo, the one with sandy blond hair, or the second-year who had given Yoshida trouble before. It was a boy he had never seen. The Class C badge was pinned to his uniform collar. His black hair was slightly long, casually tucked behind his ears. His features weren't particularly striking, but there was something unsettling about his eyes. They weren't fierce, just cold. A different kind of cold from Horikita Suzune's. Horikita's was like a blade, pure and sharp, with nothing hidden. This boy's was like a sheet of ice. You couldn't tell how deep the water beneath it went.

"Kanzaki Toru?" The boy leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, speaking casually, as if calling out to an old friend.

"And you are?"

"Ryuen Kakeru. From Class C." He smiled faintly, the corners of his mouth barely moving. "I heard you were around during the Old School Building incident."

Kanzaki didn't answer. He was observing Ryuen, who stood beside the hallway window, which was open behind him. The May breeze streamed in, ruffling the hair over his forehead. His posture was relaxed, his weight shifted back, and he showed no signs of aggression. But his eyes were moving. In just a few seconds, his gaze had swept over Kanzaki's stance, the position of his hands, the direction of his eyes, even the rhythm of his breathing.

"No answer means I'm right." Ryuen pulled one hand from his pocket and made a small gesture. "Relax. I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm just curious—that siren, you were the one who set it off, right?"

Kanzaki looked at him. He neither confirmed nor denied it.

Ryuen tilted his head, the curve of his smile widening a little. "Using a siren to drive people away, avoiding a direct confrontation, achieving your goal at the lowest cost. Pretty clever." He put his hand back in his pocket, pushed away from the wall, and took a few steps forward. As he passed Kanzaki, he lowered his voice until only the two of them could hear. "But if you get in my way again, it might not be so simple next time."

With that, he continued on, his pace unhurried. When he passed the stairwell, he raised a hand without looking back, as if greeting someone who wasn't there. It wasn't a provocation so much as a declaration: I know who you are now.

Kanzaki remained where he was, watching Ryuen's back disappear around the stairwell corner. He slowly unclenched his fist. It wasn't fear; it was his body's instinctive reaction to a threat. Ryuen Kakeru was far more dangerous than the buzz cut, the bald guy, and Ishizaki combined. The key word in what he'd just said was "next time." He'd said, "If you get in my way again," not, "I'll let this go." That meant Ryuen hadn't abandoned his plan to target Class D. He would only get personally involved once he found an opponent interesting enough.

By the time he returned to the classroom, lunch break was nearly over. Sakura Airi sat in a corner, looking through the photos on her camera. When she saw him come in, she looked up. Her purple eyes lingered on his face for a moment beneath the brim of her hat.

"Kanzaki, who was that person in the hallway just now?"

"Ryuen Kakeru from Class C."

Sakura's finger lightly pressed the camera's shutter button. She didn't take a picture; it was just an unconscious gesture. She fell silent for a few seconds, then handed him the camera. A photo was displayed on the screen. It showed the noticeboard by the entrance to the Academic Building, with last week's club activity schedule posted on it. In the lower-right corner, a blurred figure was passing by the edge of the frame. It was Ryuen. Ishizaki was with him. They were talking; Ryuen's expression was mild, while Ishizaki looked distinctly impatient.

"I took this three days ago. I was trying to photograph the club activity schedule on the noticeboard," Sakura said. "I only noticed the corner when I was sorting through the pictures later. They talked for a few minutes. When Ryuen left, Ishizaki caught up to him and asked him something, but Ryuen didn't turn around."

Kanzaki studied the photo. Three days ago, Ishizaki and Ryuen had met by the noticeboard. Two days later, Ishizaki had managed to lure Sudo to the gym with precision. The timeline fit. Ryuen was the one laying the net; Ishizaki, Kondo, and the two second-years were nodes in it. And stopping Kanzaki in the hallway just now hadn't been merely to exchange a few words. Ryuen had been checking whether Class D had anyone worth facing personally.

After school, he told Horikita Suzune about it on the rooftop.

Horikita leaned against the railing, the black coffee in her hand already cold. After hearing him out, she didn't speak right away. She simply gazed at the distant gray-white wall.

"Ryuen is sounding you out," she finally said. "The fact that he came to see you in person means you've caught his attention. That means two things. First, he's marked one more person in Class D. Second—" She turned to face him, her purple eyes fixed on his. "He won't make a move against you for now. You've piqued his interest. To Ryuen, an interesting opponent is worth more than a hundred nobodies he could take out without a second thought. His interest gives you a buffer of safety, but that doesn't mean you'll be safe forever."

"I know," Kanzaki said. "How are things with Sudo?"

"He still wants to join the Basketball Club. Kondo hasn't approached him again these past few days, but Ishizaki is still hanging around the gym. Sudo isn't saying much anymore, but from the way he moves during training, I can tell he might try to settle things with them one-on-one." Horikita paused. "I may need to put more pressure on Sudo and make him realize he can't resolve this with a fight."

"Your approach might backfire with him."

Horikita didn't argue. She finished her coffee and crushed the empty can. "What are you going to do about Ryuen?"

"Nothing for now. If he doesn't attack, I'll stay put. But I need your help with something. About the addendum to the student handbook—you said students' personal conduct was recorded in their files. How long would it take to look up someone's name?"

"Depends on who you want to look up. If it's someone from Class C, I'd need to check their public disciplinary records and club applications. It could take as little as a day or as long as three."

"Ryuen Kakeru. I want to know why he can use second-years as pawns."

Horikita nodded without asking why he wanted to know. As she turned toward the rooftop door, she paused at the entrance for a second. Her profile looked sharply defined in the setting sun. Her lips moved as if she had something else to say. Then she pushed the door open, and her footsteps faded into the stairwell.

Kanzaki stood alone by the railing, watching the sun sink little by little behind the high wall. The May evening breeze carried the scent of grass from the field, faint and real. He sank his awareness into the Illustrated Guide. Sakura Airi's page glowed quietly, her favorability at 70. Horikita Suzune's favorability had risen to 42, and a new line had appeared in her status field: "Building trust." Karuizawa Kei's page was gradually taking shape, with a favorability of 35 and a title that had settled into four clear characters: "Proud Guide." But something else caught his attention. At the end of the Illustrated Guide, a new page that had never appeared before was slowly taking shape. Its edges shimmered with a cool light, and its texture was unlike that of any page he had seen before. It wasn't a soft glow, but a metallic gleam.

He steadied himself and focused his awareness entirely on it. The Goddess Illustrated Handbook was only open to girls. That meant the face emerging beneath this cold light belonged to a girl he had never met. But the Illustrated Guide still couldn't show her clearly. All he could see was an outline, with a few scattered details faintly appearing around it: the letter C and a line of status text he couldn't yet make out.

C. Class C. The Illustrated Guide was actively searching for a target in Class C. He opened his eyes. The campus below the rooftop was already lit by streetlamps. Each lamp illuminated a small patch of pavement, cutting the darkness into alternating squares of light and shadow. People walked through some of them; others were empty for now.

And in one square he had yet to enter, a new page of the Illustrated Guide was waiting for him.