Cross-Class Groups

On Monday morning, the bulletin board on the first floor of the Academic Building was surrounded by a crowd.

By the time Kanzaki Toru arrived, three or four rows of people had already gathered around the bulletin board. Yoshida and Sudo were squeezed right at the front, and Sudo's voice carried clearly through two layers of people. "What the hell is this grouping? Why do I have to be in a group with someone from Class C!" Several girls nearby were whispering to one another. Some were on tiptoe, trying to read the list, while others were taking pictures with their terminals to send to classmates who hadn't arrived yet.

He stood on the edge of the crowd without trying to push his way in. Once the people at the front had thinned out a little, he walked up to the bulletin board.

The group list was posted in the center of the board, arranged by student number. His finger slid down the list, and he quickly found his name: Kanzaki Toru. Group members: Sakura Airi, Shiina Hiyori, Yukimura Teruhiko, and a boy named Hamaguchi Tetsuya. The notes column said Class B.

Cross-class groups, five students per group. Two from Class D, one from Class C, and two from Class B. Being grouped with Sakura Airi was probably the result of the school's random assignment, but for him, it was an ideal combination. Sakura was the person he trusted most in Class D, so there was no need to build a new channel of communication within the group. But another name caught his attention even more: Shiina Hiyori. They'd met at the library just over the weekend, and on Monday they'd been assigned to the same group.

"Kanzaki."

Sakura Airi had appeared behind him at some point. She wasn't wearing a hat today, and her shoulder-length black hair fell loose. Her red, thick-framed glasses sat firmly on the bridge of her nose. Her gaze was also fixed on the list.

"We're in the same group," she said. Her voice was quiet, but it no longer faltered like it had at the start of the school year.

"And Shiina Hiyori from Class C."

Sakura nodded. "Yesterday, she helped me return an overdue photography collection without charging me a late fee. She's easy to talk to, but she doesn't approach other people much." She paused. "What do you think the school is really trying to do with these groups?"

"Chabashira said they'll announce the assignments next week. Until then, let's observe the other people in our group." Kanzaki Toru took a picture of the list and put away his terminal.

By the time the two of them entered the classroom, Class D had already erupted into chaos.

Sudo stood beside the teacher's desk, slapping it with one hand as he shouted toward Horikita Suzune. "Why the hell do I have to be in a group with Ishizaki! That bastard nearly got me beaten into the hospital by some second-years last time! Is the school blind or something!"

His voice was loud enough to carry across the entire floor. Ishizaki Daichi was sitting by the window in the back row, arms folded across his chest, his expression cool and completely unbothered.

Horikita stood up and replied in her usual icy tone, "The school decided the groups. It's not up to me to change them. If you're unhappy, go complain to the Academic Affairs Office yourself."

"You think I'm afraid to?"

"Then go. Right now. The Academic Affairs Office is at the end of the corridor on the east side of the first floor. There's a sign by the door. You won't have trouble finding it." Horikita's tone held no warmth, but every word neatly blocked Sudo's next complaint. Sudo opened his mouth, then realized he had no real argument. He could only slap the desk once more and return to his seat.

Kanzaki Toru sat in his usual spot by the window in the back row, his gaze sweeping over the classroom's different pockets of reaction. Horikita and Sudo were arguing, while Karuizawa and her friends whispered together at the other end. Kushida Kikyo stood among a few girls, gently advising them to wait until they saw the assignments before jumping to conclusions. But her gaze lingered on the list for a moment—the section where Karuizawa's name was.

Kushida was in Karuizawa's group. The pairing didn't surprise him. Class D had a limited number of girls, so the odds of two key figures ending up in the same group weren't low to begin with. But the look on Karuizawa's face—she was studying the list with her head lowered, her bangs covering her eyes, her thumb repeatedly swiping over the same spot on her terminal—wasn't one of displeasure. It was hesitation.

Kushida was already walking toward Karuizawa with a smile. He looked away. Some conflicts didn't need to be provoked from the outside; they would surface on their own at the right moment.

After the last class of the afternoon ended, Sakura Airi was the first to leave the classroom, her profile slightly pale. One of the girls in her group was named Manabe Shiho, and she wasn't from Class D. Kanzaki Toru noticed the small motion of Sakura clutching her bag strap before she went out, and he made a note of Manabe Shiho's name.

The first meeting of the cross-class groups was scheduled for the Tuesday lunch break, in a discussion room on the first floor of the library.

When Kanzaki Toru and Sakura went in together, Shiina Hiyori had already arrived. She sat by the window with a thick novel spread out in front of her. It wasn't a light novel, but the kind of paperback with a gilt cover and yellowing page edges. Her long, light chestnut hair was loosely tied behind her head with a plain ribbon, and the silver bookmark was still pinned to her uniform pocket. When she saw him come in, she merely raised her eyes, gently closed the book, and offered no unnecessary greeting.

Yukimura Teruhiko arrived second. The tall boy with glasses walked in with his back ramrod straight, a math reference book tucked under his arm. He nodded at Kanzaki Toru, his gesture stiff but polite.

The last to arrive was Hamaguchi Tetsuya from Class B. He was of average height and build, with an easygoing smile on his face. "Sorry I'm late! The Class B classroom is so far from the library—oh, Shiina, long time no see!" He waved to Shiina, who only gave a slight nod without looking up from her book.

The five of them sat around the discussion table. Hamaguchi was the first to speak, suggesting that they each introduce their strengths and study habits. His tone was relaxed, but his eyes paused on each of them—not just glancing around, but carefully sizing them up. People from Class B weren't pushovers either, apparently.

During the discussion, Kanzaki Toru noticed something that surprised him: Sakura Airi was speaking. In a group of five, she'd taken the initiative to speak up. Her voice was still very quiet, and her fingers were clutching the hem of her uniform skirt beneath the table, but she was speaking.

"I-I can organize the materials...and take photos for the records. If we need charts or annotations, I can add them directly to the photos."

"Photo editing?" Yukimura pushed up his glasses, his tone serious. "That could be very useful for the actual report."

Sakura nodded slightly, then very quickly glanced at Kanzaki Toru, as though checking something. He said nothing, only opened his notebook and began taking notes on the day's discussion. Her change hadn't happened when he'd stepped in to stop someone from hitting on her on the bus. It hadn't happened when second-years had scrutinized her outside the convenience store. It had built up, bit by bit, through the accumulation of daily moments—making lunch, going to the library, getting into the pool on her own during swim class, talking with him about photos on the rooftop.

When the discussion ended, Shiina Hiyori came over to him and slipped a note between the pages at the spine of his notebook. Her movements were light and quick, but her fingertips pressed gently against the page, lingering a little longer than he expected. Then she left the discussion room with her book in her arms.

The note contained only one line: "There's a heartbeat beneath the ice."

The handwriting was delicate, but each stroke ended with a tiny flourish. It hadn't been written casually. She'd written it with care.

He folded the note and put it in his pocket.

There's a heartbeat beneath the ice. Was Shiina talking about herself, or about this school? Her first piece of information had helped him find the Summary of School System Changes. Her second had indirectly revealed Ryuen's movements through the library's loan records. And this one—was it a cryptic phrase, or a hint? Each time, the quiet girl who loved tea gave him something that went a little deeper than before. And her page in the Illustrated Guide still hadn't fully unfolded. So far, her name had only just been written there.

As he left the discussion room, he ran into Horikita Suzune in the corridor. She was leaning against the wall, holding the same old black coffee she always drank. When she saw him approach, her dark eyes shifted. "How did the cross-class group discussion go?"

"Fine. Sakura started speaking up in the group."

"It's good that she can speak up." Horikita left the topic at that, then lowered her voice by half a note. "Sudo submitted a request to the school to change groups. He said he had 'a serious personal conflict with another member of the group.' I went to the Academic Affairs Office to ask about it. The school's response was that cross-class group assignments couldn't be changed once they were posted. They've closed that route off completely."

In other words, Sudo had to work with Ishizaki in the same group. And Ishizaki was one of Ryuen's people. Ryuen's web had never intended to leave Sudo any way out.

"Does Sudo know his request was denied?"

"I just told him. He threw a chair." Horikita's tone was flat, but her fingers gripped the coffee can more tightly than usual. "I've warned him that if he causes trouble again, he may get more than a reprimand. Behavior evaluations carry more weight during the cross-class groups than usual. But right now, he can barely hear anything anyone says to him."

Kanzaki Toru fell silent for a moment. Sudo's current state was like a tightly compressed spring. The harder it was pressed, the stronger it would rebound. That was exactly what Ryuen wanted: to make Sudo lose control in public, then use the school's rules to remove him from the competition with the school's blessing. He looked up. The late-May sunlight spilled across the sports field. The scent of fresh grass drifted in through the open windows of the corridor, mingling with the shouts of students in a distant PE class. Everything seemed full of life.

"Ryuen won't stop here. He's laying several plans at once, and Sudo is only one of them. The cross-class groups are another square on his board." He turned to look at Horikita. "Before the cross-class group assignments are officially announced, bring over anyone you can. Don't let Ryuen make the first move."

Horikita set down her coffee can, her violet eyes shining with a sharpness that stood out in the afternoon light. "Who should I bring over?"

"The people who are already coming to us on their own. You don't need to seek them out. Just give them a clear signal when they approach." Kanzaki Toru turned to look down the corridor, toward the library. "I'm going to return a book."

He walked along the long corridor at an unhurried pace. In his mind, he laid out Sudo's predicament, the cross-class group list, and the frozen cooperation rule Shiina Hiyori had provided, one by one. Ryuen was deploying his forces, the school was reviving its old system, and all the hidden threads were moving forward at once. All he could do was make his move at the crucial points.

In the depths of the Illustrated Guide, every page was in its place. Sakura Airi's warm light, Horikita Suzune's cold flame, Karuizawa Kei's gilded edges, Shiina Hiyori's pale-brown backdrop. Kushida Kikyo's page remained a mystery. Beside her page, an outline that had previously been barely discernible was beginning to take shape. It was something the Illustrated Guide had automatically marked after Karuizawa Kei's group assignment information was entered, following some unknown logic—a figure who had yet to make her appearance.

He paused and focused his awareness on it.

The figure was drawing closer and closer to him. When she officially entered the school's social circle, the Illustrated Guide would automatically open a complete page for her. He couldn't see that path yet—but it had to have already been laid out all around him.