The Boundary Kushida Wanted

After the first class the next day, two girls approached Hirata one after the other.

"I heard Horikita was tentatively set to lead the first round of nighttime preparations directly?"

They had not appeared together, yet they had used the same word: tentatively.

Hirata did not immediately decide who was stirring things up. He only asked each of them where they had heard it and what the exact wording had been. The first girl said Kushida had mentioned it while collecting concerns; the second had kept an internal school message, which likewise read: If Horikita is tentatively assigned to directly lead the first round, what worries you most?

This proved that Kushida had presented a hypothetical situation as an arrangement close to being decided. It did not prove she wanted to sabotage Horikita, nor did it prove that she had created all the similar concerns.

Hirata handed the two sources and their timestamps to Gu Heng and Horikita, while keeping the girls' names to himself.

The girl who had kept the message only agreed to let it be used for this interface review. She did not agree to have a screenshot included in the public rulebook. Hirata therefore saved only the exact wording, time, and scope of authorization in the restricted records. On the public revision page, he only wrote, "Hypothetical wording concerning arrangements exceeded the boundary; two independent sources verified."

The other girl asked for her name to be deleted from the oral account once the review was over. Hirata wrote the deletion deadline into the receipt. He did not assume he had acquired the right to keep it long-term simply because she had provided evidence.

"Yesterday, we agreed that hypotheticals had to be clearly labeled." Horikita looked at the message, her voice turning cold.

"Let her explain first," Gu Heng said.

At lunch, the four of them met in an empty classroom.

When Kushida entered, she first saw the timestamp records in Hirata's hand. The smile on her face paused for half a beat.

"You're calling me in for a review?"

"Yes." Hirata pushed the two original statements, with the girls' names removed, toward her. "Why did you use 'tentatively assigned'?"

Kushida did not deny that the message had come from her.

"Because if I only called it hypothetical, they'd answer, 'Anything is fine,' first," she said. "Only when they feel the arrangement is about to be finalized will their real worries come out."

"That violated yesterday's questioning boundaries," Horikita said.

"But it also brought out real concerns." Kushida raised her eyes. "Could they switch out if they couldn't hold up at night? Who should they talk to if they had physical issues? Would temporarily withdrawing make them seem like a burden? Did your original form include any of that?"

Horikita did not answer.

Those questions truly had not been included in the capability sheet.

Gu Heng looked at Kushida.

"The information is useful. That does not make the overstep never happen."

"So how are you going to punish me?" Kushida asked with a smile.

"No punishment," Gu Heng said. "This is not a disciplinary issue under class rules. It is an interface breach. The consequences will only apply to interface permissions."

He did not use the old method of setting out bait first and catching her afterward. Yesterday's question scope, purpose, and delivery method had all been confirmed by all four parties. Today's two independent accounts were enough to prove that she had changed the wording.

Hirata proposed the first adjustment. "In the next round, you will no longer send out hypotheticals concerning arrangements on your own. Submit the questions to me for confirmation first, then collect feedback."

Horikita added the second. "You will continue collecting concerns from the girls' side, but you may only submit categories and headcounts. The exact wording, names, and health details will be given to whoever the person chooses."

Kushida did not agree immediately.

"You're cutting what I can do in half, and you still want me responsible for the most troublesome communication?"

"Then you can add conditions," Gu Heng said.

The sharpness in her eyes paused for a moment.

"First, someone must respond to any gender- and health-related adjustment issues I submit that same day. You can't bury them at the bottom of the sheet just because they're inconvenient."

"Agreed," Hirata said. "The response may be that it will not be adopted for now, but the reason must be stated."

"Second, Horikita cannot bypass me and directly count people who refuse to communicate as uncooperative."

Horikita looked at her.

"I will not record silence as agreement, nor will I record it as a violation. But if the task has already been made clear and the person still will not say whether they can handle it, the position will not be held for them."

"I accept that," Kushida said.

"Third, I won't hand over private exact wording."

"You should not have been required to hand it over in the first place," Gu Heng replied.

Kushida asked again, "Then when can I send questions myself again? You can't make Hirata approve every sentence I say from now on just because I got the wording wrong once."

"Complete one round of collection, review, and correction according to the new boundaries, then the people using the interface will vote," Hirata said. "What will be restored is your questioning permission, not your authority to announce arrangements."

She looked over the three of them.

"At least you're not withholding it forever."

With conditions for restoring permissions, tightening them would not become an excuse to control her permanently over a single overstep. Whether they were restored would not be decided by Gu Heng alone, either.

The new boundaries were written into the interface records: Kushida retained the right to collect and classify information but lost the authority to independently announce hypotheticals concerning arrangements; Hirata was responsible for reviewing questions and responding that day; Horikita was responsible for incorporating executable adjustments into the preparation plan; Gu Heng would only review anonymized gaps.

Kushida was not required to explain her motives to each girl over the old message, avoiding a second exposure of who had raised the concerns. Hirata issued a unified correction: there was currently no arrangement for nighttime leadership, and yesterday's related questions had been unconfirmed hypotheticals; the concerns already submitted remained valid and did not need to be submitted again.

After the correction was sent, both girls confirmed that they had received it. One mistaken phrasing was withdrawn, but the real needs it had uncovered were not invalidated along with it.

Only after Kushida finished reading the record did she place the actual summary from the girls' side on the table.

Concerns about nighttime rotations were the most common, followed by changing clothes and hygiene, then fear of requesting a shift change after physical strength dropped.

"These aren't excuses," she said. "If you only write down who can do something, but not who can safely step away, what you collect will still be pretty lies."

Gu Heng did not argue.

Even after the interface had been tightened, the information she provided was still useful. That was what proved she was not some disposable tool character who could be removed from the story after being caught once.

That afternoon, Hirata and Yukimura completed the first round of anonymized summaries.

Twenty-seven forms were currently usable.

Only seven people had clearly stated that they could handle consecutive nighttime rotations. Of those, four were also irreplaceable on the records, supplies, or coordination lines. That left only three who could truly be rotated independently.

Horikita wrote the three numbers in the corner of the whiteboard.

27 / 7 / 3

"What about the other thirteen?" she asked.

"Nine still haven't completed their capability confirmations. Four only submitted what they were good at and did not provide hard limits," Hirata said.

This was not simply that Class D was fragile.

It was a gap that could already be calculated: if the official rules required continuous nighttime activity, the current rotation system would drain the records, supplies, and coordination lines first.

Gu Heng did not immediately assign those three people to the night shift.

"Find replaceable tasks first. Don't squeeze the usable people dry first," he said. "Once the rules come out tomorrow morning, the records, supplies, and coordination lines will each report one task that can be handed over to a newcomer. If someone is willing to learn, the person involved will confirm it."

Horikita wrote that beneath the three numbers. The 3 was not treated as three cards that already belonged to the class; it merely forced them to admit that the current plan had almost no redundancy.

Before school ended, the school affairs page updated with a notice.

The official rulebook for the special exam will be distributed at seven tomorrow morning.

Gu Heng looked at the 27 / 7 / 3 on the whiteboard and did not say, "We might lose," again.

If tomorrow's new rules placed even one more demand on the nighttime or early-morning window, one of those three numbers would collapse first.