Cracks

After that day, Sudo never went looking for Ishizaki again. The dull thud of weights still echoed from the gym, and Sudo still shouted about gaming with friends from the back of the classroom, but Ishizaki was no longer by his side. A hole had been torn in Ryuen's web around Sudo. But the web was still there. And so was Ishizaki.

Kanzaki Toru knew that simply having Sudo hold back one punch wasn't enough to completely dismantle Ryuen's influence over Class D. He needed to tear Ryuen's faction apart from within. And Ishizaki was a crack that could be pried open.

He was waiting for the right moment. It came sooner than he'd expected.

Three days before the cross-class group assignment was due, Kanzaki Toru was sorting through report materials on the roof of the Old School Building when he unexpectedly heard an argument from below. It wasn't Sudo's voice. It was Ishizaki's and Kondo's—the one with sandy-brown hair.

He closed his folder and silently walked to the edge of the roof to look down. The two stood in the shadow by the back door of the Old School Building. Kondo leaned against the wall, holding an unlit cigarette between his fingers. Ishizaki faced him, hands in his pockets and shoulders taut.

"So you're just going to let what happened with Sudo go?" Kondo's voice was openly contemptuous. "Ryuen says to drop it, so you drop it? Ishizaki, you know damn well you were the one who started this. Sudo didn't take the bait, and Ryuen lost face in Class C. You think he's just going to let that go?"

"What else can I do? You want me to trick Sudo again? You think he'll trust me after what happened last time?" Ishizaki kept his voice low, but every word carried suppressed anger. "Ryuen promised me that once Sudo got expelled, I'd get a starting spot on the Basketball Club. What about now? The plan failed, and he won't even mention the starting spot. He still wants me to go after Sudo again. I may be shameless, but I'm not a dog."

Kondo lowered the unlit cigarette from his lips and said vaguely, "Isn't it a little late to say all this now? You know what Ryuen's like. Once you're on his boat, you can't just get off whenever you want. Unless—"

"Unless what?"

"Unless you can prove you're still useful to him in Class D." Kondo tucked the cigarette behind his ear and patted Ishizaki on the shoulder. "Think about it."

With that, he left Ishizaki standing alone in the shadow. Ishizaki lowered his head, clenching and unclenching his right fist. Then he swore and kicked a pebble hard.

Kanzaki Toru looked away and leaned against the railing. The crack between Ishizaki and Ryuen was wider than he'd expected. It wasn't that Ishizaki didn't want to keep running with Ryuen; it was that Ryuen had started withholding the promised rewards. Ishizaki wasn't after some elaborate scheme or some vague hunger for control. He wanted things that were concrete and immediate: a starting spot on the team, a label that could help him turn his fortunes around. Ryuen had given him an empty promise, and now that it couldn't be fulfilled, he'd abandoned Ishizaki halfway. That would leave Ishizaki feeling stranded in midair. That feeling could be used as a point of entry.

Just then, a message from Horikita Suzune came through on his device, brief and to the point: "I got Ishizaki's assessment report. Attached." Among the attachments was a short note: in his third year of middle school, Ishizaki Daichi had once charged into the coach's office alone after becoming dissatisfied with the school's selection results. He'd been suspended from the team for a time, then reinstated after an upperclassman vouched for him. But he'd never reclaimed his starting spot. Another student with better connections had taken it.

In his third year of middle school, losing a starting spot had driven Ishizaki to the point of storming the coach's office. He wasn't simply impulsive. He had a deep, almost physical fear of having what he deserved taken away from him. The starting spot Ryuen had dangled in front of him was the carrot; taking it back was a repeat of what had happened in middle school. Ishizaki was reliving his fear, and his anger.

Kanzaki Toru put away his device and left the roof. His approach to Ishizaki wasn't ready yet. Ishizaki didn't trust anyone at the moment, and going straight to him would only make him think there was an ulterior motive. Kanzaki needed to get Ishizaki somewhere quiet and neutral, away from his classmates, before he could send a signal. He couldn't do this alone. He needed someone who could put Ishizaki at ease: not hot-tempered, not aggressive, unremarkable, and able to talk to Ishizaki on the court. He made up his mind and hurried toward the basketball court.

Only a few students were left practicing their shots at the basketball court that evening. One of them was Hamaguchi Tetsuya from Class B, the friendly guy from the cross-class group. Sweat ran down his temple. He'd casually rolled his uniform sleeves up to his elbows, revealing his tanned forearms.

"Hey, Kanzaki!" Hamaguchi tucked the ball under his arm and walked over. "Here to talk about the group report?"

"The report's all taken care of." Kanzaki Toru caught the ball Hamaguchi tossed him and bounced it on the ground. "I wanted to ask you for a favor."

"Sure."

"You know Ishizaki from the Basketball Club, right?"

Hamaguchi's smile faded for an instant. "Yeah. Why?"

"How's he been doing at practice these last few days?"

"Not great." Hamaguchi wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "After Ryuen told him about the starting spot, he trained like a man possessed. These past few days, he's clearly been slacking off. The coach even chewed him out today. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I was just hoping you could run a few plays with him at the next practice. He's been carrying too much on his own lately. It's easy to get stuck in your own head."

Hamaguchi looked at him, lips parting as if he wanted to say something before thinking better of it. Then he nodded readily. "Sure. It's just playing together. That's what teammates are for. But Kanzaki, you're more of a busybody than I expected."

"I'm just doing what's convenient." Kanzaki Toru tossed the ball back to Hamaguchi and turned to leave.

When he got back to the dorm, he ran into Karuizawa Kei in the hallway. She was leaning beside a vending machine, turning a can of sweet red bean soup in her hand. She seemed more composed than before, in no rush to pull the tab. When she saw him, the corner of her mouth lifted slightly.

"I heard you've been spending a lot of time with Shiina lately—the librarian from Class C at the Library." She arched an eyebrow, a faint, hard-to-read note in her voice.

"She helped me look up some information."

"Oh? What kind of information?"

"Records from the Old School Building. We need them for the cross-class group."

Karuizawa glanced at him, then gave a soft snort. "All right. But don't think I haven't noticed, Kanzaki." She moved half a step closer and lowered her voice. "You've been working with Horikita to look into Ryuen lately, haven't you?"

Kanzaki Toru didn't deny it. The information network Karuizawa had among the girls in Class D was more sensitive than he'd expected.

"After what happened with Sakura, I figured it out. The people in this class who actually get things done aren't the ones who make the most noise. You and Horikita do, but Horikita won't lower herself to ask for help. You will." She looked up at him. "So if you need anything, just tell me. I don't need you to prove anything. I've already learned to buy my own red bean soup."

Before he could answer, she pressed something against his chest: a strawberry candy. Then she walked away without looking back, her blonde hair tracing a sharp arc in the setting sun.

He peeled off the wrapper and put the candy in his mouth. Its sweetness melted over his tongue, and at the same time, he heard a faint page turn deep within the Illustrated Guide. Karuizawa Kei's page appeared in his mind again. Her title had changed from "Proud Guide" to "Quietly Changing Ally," and her affection had jumped from 35 to 52. Reward unlocked: "Perception Resonance." Description: when the target is engaged in social maneuvering closely connected to your side, you can sense their most important unspoken need.

Kanzaki Toru stopped and let the new perception settle into his mind. Unlike disguise techniques, which were an instinctive upgrade, or enhanced observation, which improved sensory precision, Perception Resonance added a new dimension at the conceptual level. When Karuizawa distinguished allies from enemies in a crowd, he could perceive the other person's most vulnerable spot through her senses.

And each of Karuizawa's seemingly casual yet candid remarks—the people who actually get things done aren't the ones who make the most noise; I won't let anyone manipulate me anymore; I've already learned to buy my own red bean soup—had also tested her own new position. She was finally no longer content to be a queen bee. She wanted to become a real force on the battlefield. The timing of this reward couldn't have been better.

He recalled how Perception Resonance had felt when it activated. When Karuizawa pressed the candy to his chest, an image had surfaced clearly in his mind: not her smiling face, but the corners of her mouth tightening slightly beneath her blonde hair as she took a detour back to the dorm alone. At the time, he hadn't understood what that gesture meant. Now he did. She hadn't been thinking about him then. She'd been thinking about Sakura. The can of red bean soup Karuizawa hadn't given away had overlapped with his own list of goals. She was taking Sakura's every tiny thought more seriously than anyone would have guessed. Seriously enough to take a detour past the bench Sakura often visited, quietly leave a can of red bean soup, and hurry away. In that moment, as she set it down, she was thinking of the same person in two entirely different ways.

He folded the candy wrapper and put it in his pocket, then headed toward the boys' dormitory. Perception Resonance only worked with Karuizawa for now, but its potential value was enormous. When it came to the social currents among the girls in Class D, Karuizawa was the most important sensor. Being able to perceive unspoken needs through her was like planting a wiretap-resistant copper wire inside Kushida Kikyo's gentle web. And the pace of rewards from the Illustrated Guide was picking up. That meant his trust with several goddesses was quietly advancing under the main storyline's pressure. The next stage was hidden behind the date signed on the last page of the Old System records.

He opened his device and sent Horikita a message: "I found Ishizaki's point of entry. Meet me on the roof at lunch tomorrow. By the way, did Sakagami-sensei mention anything about the specific trigger that forced the old partnership model to end, besides that comment about idealism?"

Horikita didn't reply right away. But she would care about it, because that had been the one part of Sakagami-sensei's conversation where he'd kept dodging the question.