The Bets and the Spectator of the Energy-Saving Ideology

The noon break in the Class D classroom was always a disaster area of noise and disorderly energy exchange.

Orikasa Yuu sat in the dead center of the back row. On his left, Horikita Suzune kept her head down as she flipped through a hardcover book, while on his right, Sakura Airi huddled in her seat, her fingers unconsciously twisting the strap of her camera. The three of them maintained a low-energy silent triangle in the back of the classroom, sharply distinct from the growing commotion ahead.

The uproar began in the rear corner of the room.

"Hey, hey, don't you guys think Karuizawa has a surprisingly good figure?" Ike Kanji lowered his voice, but the lowered volume was just right for half the classroom to hear.

"Huh? What's so great about an arrogant woman like that?" Yamauchi Haruki dismissed her with his words, but his eyes honestly drifted toward Karuizawa Kei. "If you ask me, Kushida is the hidden type, right? You can't really tell usually, but that uniform size..."

"You two are too superficial." Sudou Ken crossed his arms, his expression beneath his red hair unusually serious. "You can't just judge a woman by her surface; you have to look at the overall proportions. Understand? Proportions!"

Several boys gathered in a semi-circle, their voices growing louder as they discussed. Like a group of explorers who had discovered a new world, they were using their meager vocabulary to map a shoddy chart called "Class D Girls' Physical Traits."

Orikasa Yuu did not raise his head.

Energy-Saving Rule Five: Do not participate in zero-yield information exchanges.

"--Since you guys are so enthusiastic, why don't we make it interesting?"

A slightly excited voice cut in. Sotomura Hideo pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and pulled a tablet computer out of his school bag. The cold light of the screen reflected off his lenses, making him look even more intensely like an otaku.

"I'm opening a book. We're betting on the chest size rankings of the Class D girls. Odds update in real time, and points are accepted as bets. How about it?"

The classroom fell silent for a single moment.

Then the boys' section erupted into a cheer that sounded like jeering.

"Sotomura, you really know your stuff!"

"I'm betting on Kushida for the top three!"

"Karuizawa has to be number one, right?"

"No, no, that Sakura girl is the hidden giant..."

"Hey!"

A sharp protest came from the girls' section.

Karuizawa Kei stood up abruptly, slamming her cosmetic mirror onto the desk with a crisp clack. "What are you disgusting guys talking about?!"

"That's right, it's too vulgar!" another girl chimed in.

The smile on Kushida Kikyo's face stiffened, her fingers gripping the edge of her textbook so tightly her knuckles turned white. She managed to maintain her usual sweet voice, "Everyone... this isn't very nice..."

But the boys were already caught up in a collective frenzy. Three layers of people crowded around Sotomura Hideo's tablet. Even Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, usually so listless, stood on the outer fringe of the crowd with half-closed eyes, his gaze shifting back and forth between the tablet and the girls' area as if gathering some interesting sociological data.

"Ayanokoji, aren't you going to place a bet?" Ike Kanji bumped his shoulder.

"...I'm just watching." Ayanokoji's voice was flat, with no intention of leaving.

Orikasa Yuu's peripheral vision swept across the room.

Energy consumption assessment: The current situation is at a "controllable internal class disturbance" level. Non-intervention; probability of being collateral damage is less than five percent. Optimal strategy: remain motionless and wait for the event to naturally dissipate.

A very faint gasp came from his right side.

Sakura Airi hugged her camera tighter, practically burying herself inside her desk well. Her cheeks flushed bright red, and pink strands of hair fell down to obscure the side of her face, but from Orikasa's angle, he could see the tips of her ears glowing red enough to practically drip blood.

"Airi..." Hasebe Haruka sat diagonally in front of her, turning her head with an expression caught somewhere between anger and worry. "Are you okay?"

Sakura Airi shook her head without lifting it. Her fingers twisted her camera strap into a tangled knot, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Orikasa noticed her gaze steal a glance toward him through a gap in her hair, only to quickly pull back.

There was no plea for help in that look, only a sort of panic bordering on shame—as if she feared he would also join that farce, or worse yet, worried he had already become one of them.

Orikasa withdrew his gaze and continued looking at the book spread open on his desk.

He did not participate. He placed no bets. He didn't spare that direction a single extra glance.

An energy-saving person's indifference became, at that moment, a sort of silent stance.

"Hah."

A lazy, sneering laugh came from the corner of the classroom. Koenji Rokusuke leaned back in his chair, his legs crossed and propped up on his desk as he twirled a small mirror in his hand. He hadn't even looked at the noisy boys.

"Bored," he said, his voice lazy yet clear, drifting as if from far away. "Beasts governed by the lowest desires, gathering together to play the most primitive numerical games. Don't you feel you aren't even worthy of the title 'human'?"

He adjusted his bangs in the mirror, his blond hair glittering in the light. "True beauty doesn't need to be judged—it inherently transcends all standards. Actions like yours, using points to quantify others, are merely clumsy imitations of higher existence by defective products."

Ike Kanji's face turned red. "What did you say—"

"I said you're boring." Koenji finally lowered the mirror and glanced at him as if looking at an ant. "And please, don't conduct such boring activities within my line of sight. It will defile my space for appreciating myself."

With that, he raised the mirror once more and continued to study his own face, as though all the strife in the classroom had nothing to do with him.

The classroom fell silent for an instant, and then the boys' anger bizarrely shifted toward a new target.

"Koenji, you motherfucking—"

"Enough!"

Hirata Yosuke stood up. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable pressure. The smile beneath his blond hair vanished, replaced by a rare seriousness.

"Sotomura, turn that off. Ike, Yamauchi, Sudou, you too. This joke has gone too far."

"Tch, what are you acting all righteous for, Hirata..." Yamauchi Haruki muttered, but his voice grew quieter under Hirata's gaze.

"This isn't a question of being righteous or not." Hirata Yosuke glanced around the room, his gaze lingering for a moment on the pale faces of several girls. "This is a question of respect. If Class D can't even manage the most basic respect among ourselves, how are we any different from a handful of loose sand?"

The classroom fell quiet for a few seconds.

Sotomura Hideo sheepishly put away his tablet, his eyes behind his glasses dodging the girls' glares. Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki slunk back to their seats, still grumbling under their breath. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka yawned and walked back to his spot as if he had merely watched a boring movie just now.

The storm blew in fast and left just as quickly.

Yet the aftertaste lingered. The girls gathered in twos and threes, sweeping the boys' section with looks of disgust. Karuizawa Kei was still angry, and Kushida Kikyo kept her head down while tidying her textbooks, her fingers trembling slightly. Horikita Suzune hadn't looked up from the start, but the force with which she turned her pages was a bit heavier than usual.

Sakura Airi slowly unclasped her tightly twisted strap and let out a long breath. Stealing another glance toward Orikasa and finding him still wearing that detached expression, her shoulders finally relaxed.

Orikasa mentally scored the disturbance.

Social energy consumption: moderate. Scope of impact: controllable. Subsequent maintenance cost: zero.

Perfect.

When the dismissal bell rang, the classroom atmosphere had already returned to a superficial calm. Orikasa packed his school bag and walked out of the teaching building with the flow of people.

The spring sunset dyed the stone-paved path an orange-red. As he walked along the familiar road toward the dorms, his footsteps paused slightly when he passed the swimming pool.

Inside the transparent glass curtain walls, the blue pool water shimmered in the setting-sun light. A few upperclassmen were training inside, the muffled sound of splashing water carrying through the glass.

Orikasa stood in place for three full seconds.

Tomorrow was Wednesday. The second week. The first swimming class.

He looked down at his own hand. The product of maxed-out stats, this body tuned to its absolute limit could barely be concealed beneath his loose uniform. But tomorrow, by the poolside, under everyone's gaze, that cover would be completely stripped away.

"...Troublesome."

Orikasa muttered the two words in his mind and turned to continue walking toward the dormitories.

The nightmare of the energy-saving person began tomorrow.