Leaving the Chess Club, Ken Kaneki looked up at the sky, then checked his phone.
It was still early. There was no need to head straight back to the dorm.
Remembering his empty room and his newly plentiful points, Ken Kaneki decided to splurge at the convenience store.
He followed the tree-lined path, passing plenty of students along the way. Some looked well, while others seemed utterly dispirited. The gap between rich and poor was plain to see.
Before long, Ken Kaneki reached the convenience store on campus.
He looked around. Students were coming and going in an orderly fashion, and nothing nearby had been knocked over. Sudo's argument hadn't happened.
Maybe that part hasn't come up yet, Ken Kaneki thought.
He approached the entrance. The automatic doors slid apart, and cool air blew into his face.
Ken Kaneki glanced around but saw no familiar faces. Only a few unfamiliar students were browsing between the shelves.
Was this the butterfly effect?
A little butterfly like him flapping its wings here might cause a hurricane somewhere far away. Perhaps the timeline had changed.
Ken Kaneki withdrew his gaze and picked up a black shopping basket by the entrance.
He browsed along the shelves, tossing the toiletries he needed into his basket one by one: shampoo, body wash, a toothbrush, and towels.
Ken Kaneki raised an eyebrow at the prices on the labels.
A thousand points could buy an excellent set of hair and body care products, while food and drinking water were even cheaper.
While this school squeezed surplus value out of its students, its provision for their basic needs was genuinely beyond reproach.
Ken Kaneki stopped at the very back of the convenience store.
A sign stood in the corner, bearing bold lettering: Free item pickup.
Cardboard boxes were piled with unattractive toothbrushes, unwrapped soap, and bread nearing its expiration date.
Looking at the conspicuous sign, Ken Kaneki grumbled inwardly.
Such an obvious hint, and not a single Class D student noticed it on the first day of school in the original story.
Even those idiots who blew through all hundred thousand points wouldn't starve at the end of the month, as long as they had eyes.
These people didn't just lack a sense of urgency. They'd even lost the most basic powers of observation.
He shook his head and turned toward the drinks section on the other side.
As soon as he reached the shelves, a figure in purple caught his eye.
It was a girl with long purple hair and a slender figure, dressed in a slightly oversized school uniform.
She lingered in front of a refrigerated cabinet filled with alcoholic drinks.
Class 1-A, Kamuro Masumi.
Ken Kaneki recognized her immediately. He stopped in the shadow of a shelf without making a sound.
Kamuro Masumi's movements were strange. Rather than reaching for the usual juice or soda, she stared at the canned beer on the bottom shelf.
She furtively surveyed her surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief when she found no one there.
Then she tilted her head up slightly, sweeping her gaze over the security camera in a corner of the ceiling.
She precisely calculated the camera's blind spot and shifted half a step to the right, using the edge of the refrigerated cabinet to block its direct view.
Ken Kaneki took out his phone, opened the video recording function, and aimed the camera at Kamuro Masumi.
On the screen, Kamuro Masumi quickly reached out and pulled a can of beer from the very back of the cabinet.
Instead of putting the beer into a shopping basket, she unzipped her uniform jacket.
She slipped the cold can of beer into an inside pocket, zipped up her jacket, and quickly smoothed it down with both hands, making sure no bulge was visible from outside.
The whole sequence flowed seamlessly. Clearly, this wasn't her first time.
Once she had finished, Kamuro Masumi let out a long breath, her tense shoulders relaxing.
She turned around, ready to leave the convenience store.
But the moment she raised her head, her gaze met Ken Kaneki's.
Their eyes met, and for a moment, the air grew rather awkward.
Kamuro Masumi's pupils abruptly contracted, and she pulled back the foot she had been about to step forward with.
She clutched the hem of her jacket, bunching it tightly in her fists.
I'm done for. That was the only thought in Kamuro Masumi's mind.
Ken Kaneki stood where he was, holding his shopping basket in his left hand and his phone in his right.
The phone's screen was lit, its red recording indicator still blinking.
He looked at Kamuro Masumi, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
Ken Kaneki lifted his phone and mouthed something to her.
"Come here. I've got something good to show you."
Kamuro Masumi gritted her teeth, her face deathly pale. She glanced at the convenience store's exit, then at the phone in Ken Kaneki's hand. Running was pointless. The evidence was already conclusive.
So she moved her stiff legs and walked toward Ken Kaneki, one step at a time.
"Class 1-D, Ken Kaneki." Ken Kaneki introduced himself with refined courtesy. Though his manner was as pleasant as a spring breeze, to little Masumi, he was no different from the devil.
Kamuro Masumi offered no introduction in return. She stared fixedly at the phone screen, her voice dry.
"What do you want?"
Ken Kaneki swiped his thumb across the screen, opened his gallery, and played the video he had just recorded.
The footage clearly captured the entire process of her looking around, avoiding the camera, taking the beer, and hiding it.
Kamuro Masumi closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Name your price." She opened her eyes again, a reckless resolve in her gaze.
"How much do you want to delete that video?"
Ken Kaneki rubbed his chin, pretending to think.
"I'm not exactly short on points."
At that, Kamuro Masumi stepped back half a pace and held both hands protectively over her chest, her eyes turning intensely wary.
"If you don't want points, you want something else." Kamuro Masumi was so furious that she laughed.
"People like you have nothing but filthy things in your heads. Go ahead and try. At worst, I'll leave school, but don't think you'll get away unscathed either."
Looking at the bristling hedgehog before him, Ken Kaneki felt both annoyed and amused.
In the original story, this theft was precisely how Sakayanagi Arisu had gained leverage over Kamuro Masumi.
To avoid expulsion, she had become Sakayanagi's personal errand runner.
For three whole years, she had lived in the shadow of someone else's control, yet in the end, she still hadn't escaped expulsion.
Ken Kaneki felt that outcome was far too cruel to this girl.
He raised his right hand and turned the phone screen toward Kamuro Masumi.
Open, delete, all in one smooth sequence.
A progress bar flashed past, and the video file vanished completely from his phone. Even the copies in the cloud and the recycle bin were erased.
Kamuro Masumi froze, unable to make sense of what had just happened.
"What... did you do?"
"Deleted the video." Ken Kaneki slipped his phone back into his trouser pocket as though nothing had happened.
"Why?" Kamuro Masumi's voice inexplicably rose an octave.
"If you insist on a reason, don't do anything this stupid again." Ken Kaneki looked at her helplessly.
Kamuro Masumi opened her mouth in astonishment, unable to say a word.
"Your technique was too clumsy. You thought you'd avoided the camera overhead, but the reflection in the cabinet's glass showed every move you made." Ken Kaneki pointed at the glass beside them.
"The school's surveillance system is much tighter than you think. Getting expelled over a mere can of beer really isn't worth it."
Kamuro Masumi turned her head and looked at her reflection in the refrigerated cabinet's glass.
"That's it?" She looked back at him, still unable to believe it.
She had been prepared to die rather than submit, only to discover that she had gotten the wrong idea. Shame welled up inside her. It felt like punching cotton, leaving her without either the will or the strength.
"What else? Keep the video and blackmail you into doing weird things?" Ken Kaneki picked up his shopping basket and walked past her.
"I don't have such vulgar tastes." Ken Kaneki headed toward the checkout.
In the original story, Sakayanagi Arisu had used this leverage to gain a loyal hound.
Now he had cut that thread off ahead of time.
Without Kamuro Masumi as her handy pawn, that genius girl in a wheelchair would inevitably find her control over Class A affected.
This counted as adding an interesting little off-board bargaining chip to their earlier chess match.
Kamuro Masumi stood there, watching Ken Kaneki's broad back.
The can of beer inside her jacket pressed against her skin, radiating a bone-piercing chill.
She bit her lip, unzipped her jacket, took out the beer, and slipped it back onto the bottom shelf of the refrigerated cabinet.
"I'm Kamuro Masumi," she called after him.
Ken Kaneki didn't turn around. He merely waved casually.
"Thank you," Kamuro Masumi said quietly, an inexplicable feeling flowing through her heart.
Ken Kaneki reached the checkout and placed the contents of his shopping basket on the counter.
The cashier deftly scanned the items.
"That comes to two thousand three hundred points. Please scan here."
Ken Kaneki paid, gathered his purchases, and left the convenience store.
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