Ken Kaneki had just stepped out the door with his shopping bags when the faint sounds of an argument reached his ears.
He looked toward the noise. In the break room not far away, a conspicuous head of red hair bobbed back and forth, looking particularly out of place.
With that distinctive red hair, and in this location, he immediately recognized his classmate, Ken Sudō.
Looks like the plot still hasn't changed much. Only the location is different.
Ken Kaneki considered this to himself, then carried his shopping bags over at a leisurely pace to watch the commotion.
It was human nature to enjoy a spectacle and gravitate toward a crowd, and Ken Kaneki was no exception.
He thought that he, as a butterfly, might already have changed quite a few things. He needed to establish how much the plot had changed before he could scheme more effectively in the future.
As soon as he reached the edge of the crowd, he noticed Kiyotaka Ayanokoji. Since most Japanese people were relatively short, his height made him stand out somewhat.
At that moment, Ayanokoji was still standing in a corner with some watermelon, watching the show from the sidelines.
This guy. Ken Kaneki's impression of him crumbled a little. Ayanokoji had been so impassive and aloof in the original story. How had he ended up like this?
Logically, Ayanokoji shouldn't have been like this. Perhaps someone had changed his personality. Ken Kaneki thought of himself and Koenji.
All right, found the problem. You take on the habits of the company you keep. It's all our fault for being bad influences on Ayanokoji. What a sin, what a sin.
Despite those thoughts, Ken Kaneki still walked straight over.
He approached Ayanokoji silently and patted him on the shoulder.
"Hey, fancy seeing you here. Watching the show?" Ken Kaneki greeted him, catching Ayanokoji somewhat off guard.
He hadn't noticed anyone approaching, so the sudden contact was a little startling.
Seeing that it was Ken Kaneki, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and handed him a slice of watermelon.
"Yeah. I'd just come back from shopping and was about to leave when I somehow stumbled across this."
"What exactly happened?" Ken Kaneki accepted it and asked after taking a bite.
"Apparently, Sudo had just bought a container of instant noodles and was going to get some hot water in the break room to make them.
Then three second-year students came over, claimed this was their exclusive territory, and told Sudo to get out.
You know Sudo's temper. Naturally, he refused to back down, and it turned into this."
Ayanokoji was somewhat speechless as he calmly explained things to Ken Kaneki.
Ken Kaneki nodded inwardly. The general plot was still more or less what he knew, so it seemed he hadn't had much of an impact on this particular event.
Since that was the case, he was happy to take it easy and simply ate his watermelon with Ayanokoji as they silently watched the drama.
By then, the argument at the break room entrance had reached a fever pitch.
Ken Sudō threw his instant noodles onto the floor. Liquid splashed everywhere, leaving the floor a mess.
Furious, with a savage grin on his face, he looked ready to throw a punch.
"Hey, first-year brat, you're pretty cocky. Which first-year class are you in?"
The second-year student leading the group folded his arms and looked down at Sudo.
"I'm Ken Sudō from Class 1-D! What, you want a fight? Come on, I'll take you on anytime!"
Ken Sudō clenched his fists, bellowing at the top of his lungs like an enraged beast.
At the words "Class 1-D," the three second-year students froze for a moment.
Then they burst into unrestrained laughter. The hostility and irritation in their eyes instantly vanished, replaced by undisguised contempt and mockery.
"Hahahaha! I was wondering who had so much backbone. Turns out you're just some defective from Class 1-D!"
The student leading them doubled over with laughter, as though he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"Exactly. Trash from Class D actually dares to run his mouth here," another upperclassman chimed in, his eyes full of pity.
"Hey, you redheaded idiot, eat all the instant noodles you can while you can still afford them. A class full of defectives like yours is about to find out what real hell looks like."
"What did you say?!" Completely enraged by the humiliation, Ken Sudō's forehead bulged with veins as he moved to charge forward and attack.
Standing a short distance away, Ayanokoji's gaze sharpened slightly at those words.
He gently nudged Ken Kaneki beside him, leaned a little closer, and lowered his voice. "Judging by the contempt on those three second-years' faces, our earlier guess probably wasn't wrong."
Then he tipped his chin up, signaling for Ken Kaneki to look at the security camera above them.
"Besides, causing trouble at school is bound to have extremely unpleasant consequences.
These upperclassmen are mocking him, but they've consistently kept their bodies in a posture that doesn't initiate an attack. Clearly, they're wary of something.
If Sudo attacks first now, he'll probably fall straight into their trap."
Ken Kaneki glanced in the direction Ayanokoji indicated, at the camera with its blinking red light, and slowly nodded.
Ayanokoji truly deserved his title as the White Room's greatest masterpiece. His keen perception and analytical abilities were indeed beyond reproach.
"That's a very thorough analysis." Ken Kaneki chuckled and patted Ayanokoji's shoulder. "Still, that's ultimately Sudo's own business. Slackers like us who just want to live in peace don't need to trouble ourselves worrying about him."
Ayanokoji thought it over. That was true. The three of them had already more or less secured a fallback, so there was no need to worry too much about points.
"Come on, let's head back to the dorms. We had quite a haul today. It's time to go back and have a good look at our new rooms."
Ken Kaneki lifted the shopping bags in his hands, then turned and headed toward the first-year dormitory building.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji took one last look at Ken Sudō, who was still trading heated insults with the upperclassmen, then looked away without hesitation and fell into step behind Ken Kaneki.
Their figures soon disappeared at the end of the corridor, leaving the farce that was about to erupt far behind them.
On the way, Ken Kaneki asked Ayanokoji how his haul had been. Ayanokoji said he had multiplied his points more than several dozen times over.
Ken Kaneki smiled, thoroughly satisfied.
"By the way, have you been to the dorms yet?"
"No. I've been busy all day. I'm only just getting ready to head back to the dorms now."
Ken Kaneki and Ayanokoji chatted as they walked, discussing the day's gains.
Unbeknownst to them, elsewhere, in the club activities building...
In the club presidents' group chat, the presidents of the various clubs were complaining incessantly, their tones indignant.
The reason, naturally, was that four people had plundered the bulk of their clubs' points that day, costing many of them both tangible assets and their pride.
Yet the school rules didn't prohibit doing this, so they had no way to demand their points back.
They could only swallow their bitterness in silence, unable to voice their grievances.
Of course, Ken Kaneki's group of three and the white-haired girl knew nothing of this. Even if they had known, they wouldn't have cared.
After all, those people were weak, and the weak had no say.
Before you continue