Inside the room, the two spent another tender moment together. After reluctantly leaving Ken Kaneki's embrace, Hiyori prepared to get up and return to her dorm.
She straightened her slightly creased skirt, smoothed her somewhat disheveled hair, opened the door, and walked out.
But the lingering blush on Shiina Hiyori's cheeks still refused to fade.
Just then, the elevator doors opened, and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and Koenji walked out side by side.
The three exchanged greetings in the hallway, then Hiyori jogged over to the girls' elevator.
Ayanokoji and Koenji exchanged looks, both somewhat baffled.
The two walked to room 402 and knocked. Ken Kaneki got up and opened the door.
Once inside, Koenji unceremoniously sat down in the armchair and crossed his legs.
"The owner on the third floor was all right. He knew which way the wind was blowing. He was a little hesitant at first, but quickly gave in under an onslaught of money.
"The managers of several restaurants also signed letters of intent. Once the permissions are enabled, the points will come in soon enough. I just need to spend some points on a phone call to have my family transfer the funds to them."
Ayanokoji sat on the bed and handed over a USB drive.
"This contains the final version of the microbank contract. Every clause is fully compliant. Once they sign, we're guaranteed to make them cough up their points.
"However, I checked the supplementary provisions in the student handbook.
"Third-party guarantees involving shop partnerships and large points loans require the homeroom teacher to sign as a witnessing faculty advisor. Otherwise, the school system won't enable advanced transfer permissions."
Sitting at his computer, Ken Kaneki typed the final line of information, then closed the screen.
"The website has passed the security review. Now it just needs to go through a few procedures before it can operate normally."
Ken Kaneki stood up, brought up his Student Terminal, and showed the two one of the items on it.
"There's only one last step now. Our class advisor needs to witness it and enter it into the system. I'll go see Chabashira-sensei tomorrow. You two go bring those shop owners over."
"Sure," both replied.
The next morning, in the faculty office.
Sae Chabashira leaned back in her chair, a slim cigarette for women held between her fingers.
Through the drifting smoke, she watched the students passing back and forth outside the window and couldn't help recalling the past.
Back then, she must have been just as full of promise as those young boys and girls. It was just...
A knock at the door interrupted Chabashira-sensei's thoughts.
"Come in." Upon hearing her response, Ken Kaneki pushed open the door and walked straight to her desk.
"Need something?" Sae Chabashira blew a smoke ring, her gaze settling on Ken Kaneki.
"A commercial contract witnessing agreement. It needs a faculty advisor's signature." Ken Kaneki handed her a thin application form.
Chabashira took the form and glanced over it. It contained only a simple application for a guarantee agreement, without specifying any amounts or details.
"It's been less than a month since school started. What kind of contract does a first-year like you need your homeroom teacher to witness?"
"A business partnership that will make students' lives more convenient. I'll need a little of your time. The partners are already waiting."
Sae Chabashira stared at Ken Kaneki for quite a while.
This student had behaved differently from everyone else since school began. She decided to see just what tricks he was playing.
She stubbed out her cigarette, stood up, and picked up the teacher terminal on her desk.
"Let's go."
The two walked side by side along the tree-lined path to Keyaki Mall. Morning sunlight filtered through gaps in the leaves, and there was a slight chill in the air.
"Chabashira-sensei, what do you think of Class 1-D's current state?" Ken Kaneki asked casually.
"It's all right. The students are enjoying campus life. They're quite free," Sae Chabashira said coldly.
"Are they?" Ken Kaneki chuckled. "Then I hope they can hold on to that freedom on the first of next month, when they see fewer points coming into their terminals."
Sae Chabashira abruptly stopped in her tracks. She turned her head and fixed Ken Kaneki with an unrelenting stare.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"No need to be nervous, Sensei." Ken Kaneki met her gaze without the slightest intention of backing down.
"The way this school's system works isn't hard to guess.
"Being late to class, playing on your phone, dozing off-those behaviors all deduct Class Points. Am I right?
"Besides, what normal school installs that many cameras?"
Sae Chabashira took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed her shock, and said expressionlessly, "I don't know where you heard those rumors, but the school's rules aren't something a mere student like you can make reckless guesses about."
Ken Kaneki didn't argue. He simply turned and continued walking.
He knew the seed had been planted. In time, Sae Chabashira would come to him herself because of her obsession with reaching Class A.
An upscale private business room on the second floor of Keyaki Mall.
Ken Kaneki opened the door and gestured for her to enter. Sae Chabashira walked inside, looking somewhat surprised.
Five or six people were seated in the room. Aside from Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and Rokusuke Koenji, the rest were all owners of large shops in the mall, including the person in charge of the largest fresh-food supermarket on the third floor.
This lineup hardly looks like students playing house, she muttered inwardly.
Sae Chabashira pulled out a chair and sat down, sweeping her gaze across the room. Ken Kaneki pushed three printed contracts in front of her.
"This is the operating agreement for the Campus Life secondhand trading platform; this is the microbank's points lending and credit rating terms; this is the agreement on shop fund circulation and third-party guarantees."
Sae Chabashira picked up the first document and examined it closely. Before she had read very far, her expression changed.
She put down the first and grabbed the second set of lending terms. The more she read, the deeper her brow furrowed.
By the time she finished reading the third agreement on fund circulation, she had slumped back against her chair, looking at Ken Kaneki and the other two in disbelief.
A monopoly on secondhand trading.
Lending.
Using shops to launder outside funds.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Sae Chabashira asked in a low voice.
"We're simply making reasonable use of the school rules." Kiyotaka Ayanokoji spoke up at the right moment, pointing to the clauses along the edge of the contract. "None of these provisions cross the student handbook's red lines. We're merely providing services within the scope permitted by the rules."
"With points moving on this scale, the school will notice something unusual sooner or later." Sae Chabashira looked at Koenji.
"And what if they do?" Koenji picked up the red wine glass on the table and gently swirled it.
"This school has no authority over the Koenji Conglomerate's financial operations in the outside world. As long as the books balance within the school, no one can find fault."
Sae Chabashira fell silent. In all her years of teaching, she had seen all sorts of troublemakers and geniuses, but never students whose methods were so ruthless and whose plans were so grand.
She suddenly felt a wave of relief, along with some sorrow. She was relieved that she hadn't been in the same year as these three, yet felt sorry for the students in this year's intake who had encountered these three villains.
Sae Chabashira thought for a moment. Oh, right. Aren't all three of them in our Class D? Different thoughts immediately began forming in her mind.
"Sensei, we need your signature as a witness." Ken Kaneki waved a hand in front of her eyes and offered her a fountain pen.
Sae Chabashira looked at the pen. According to the regulations, as long as the contracts broke no rules, the homeroom teacher had no right to refuse.
She took the fountain pen, signed her name on the final page of all three contracts, then scanned the codes with her teacher terminal to authenticate them.
A system notification sounded. Advanced transfer permissions were officially enabled.
The shop owners visibly sighed in relief. They stood up one after another to shake hands with Ken Kaneki and the other two, then left the room with their copies of the contracts.
In an instant, only the four of them remained in the room.
"The formalities are done. When do you plan to make your move?" Sae Chabashira stood up, her tone quite complicated.
"At the end of this month, probably." Ken Kaneki put away the contracts.
"The three days before points are distributed are when people are shortest on funds and their reason is weakest. Once they see their points have decreased, we'll deliver the fatal blow."
Before you continue