“Haha, you caught me.” Kushida Kikyou chuckled lightly without a care.
To an outsider, her completely unbothered reaction after having her ulterior motives exposed might look cute.
But after witnessing the flawless performance of the Great Demon King Ichinose, Tsugikuni Shiki really wanted to openly critique Kushida’s acting skills right to her face.
“Actually, I want to become friends with everyone, and that naturally includes you, Tsugikuni-kun.
I saw you walking alone these past few days and wondered if you were having a hard time, so I came to check on you…
But looking at it now, it seems you are doing perfectly fine…” Kushida spoke beautifully, sounding exactly like a sweet, understanding little angel.
However, the impatience in Shiki’s eyes only grew heavier.
He completely hated this kind of two-faced talk.
She was probably cursing him out in her head, yet she pretended to care.
Just thinking about it made him feel sick.
Not to mention, she was dragging her feet getting to the point, pointlessly wasting his time.
Seeing the growing impatience in his eyes, Kushida quickly cut to the chase.
“The thing is, I really want to be friends with Horikita-san.
As you know, she’s always alone and doesn’t interact with anyone else in class, so I’m really worried about her.
That’s why I came to ask for your help.
After all, Tsugikuni-kun is one of the very few people who can actually hold a conversation with her…”
“???”
Shiki’s head was full of question marks.
For a moment, he didn’t even know where to begin mocking Kushida’s logic.
“Kushida, I don’t even know how to respond to what you just said…”
“Eh?
Is there a problem?” Kushida tilted her head cutely.
Shiki took a deep breath.
“First of all, how someone chooses to live their school life is their own business.
Whether she wants to be a loner or hang out in a group has absolutely nothing to do with you, right?
Or are you just the type of person who loves making other people’s problems your own just for the drama?”
Kushida’s smile froze completely, looking as stiff as a wax mask.
“Second, what does you wanting to be her friend have to do with me?
You should go bother her, not me.” He truly felt this girl was ridiculous; her brain clearly wasn’t functioning properly.
“B-But…
aren’t Tsugikuni-kun and Horikita-san really close?
If you help me out…”
“I’m talking to you right now.
Do you think we’re really close?” Shiki cut her off.
“Besides, even if I was close to her, why would I help you?
Don’t tell me you can’t tell that she hates you, Kushida…”
Kushida watched Shiki stare at her with a blank, emotionless expression as he delivered a line that sent a chill straight down her spine.
“Just like how you hate her, right?”
Leaving those words hanging in the air, Shiki ignored the girl—whose hands and feet had turned completely cold—and walked off toward his destination.
Kushida stood completely frozen.
As she looked up and watched Shiki disappear around the corner of the hallway, her usually sweet and cute face was entirely wiped of emotion.
_____________
There was a very famous electronics store on campus that specifically sold gadgets students might need: laptops, game consoles, and digital cameras.
They had absolutely everything.
That was exactly where Shiki was heading today.
He walked over to the digital camera section and started checking the spec sheets—he had crammed a bunch of info about them last night to prepare.
After picking out a camera with great performance and a solid price, he looked up to call for an employee.
The employees here sure are slacking off.
A customer is standing right here and no one is coming over to help…
But then he realized he was wrong.
It wasn’t that the employee was ignoring customers; he was just busy “taking care” of a female student.
A short distance away, a pink haired girl was standing by the camera accessories section.
She was shrinking back, looking completely helpless, while a creepy looking employee with narrow eyes stared intensely at her without blinking.
Pink hair, glasses, deeply introverted personality, massive treasure chests…
Shiki immediately recognized her.
She was a girl from Class D who was even more isolated than Horikita.
At least Horikita occasionally exchanged a sentence or two with him and Ayanokoji.
But this girl was always completely alone and never spoke to anyone.
Shiki didn’t even remember her name.
Taking a closer look, Shiki realized something was very wrong.
The pink haired girl was hunching her shoulders.
Beneath her plain glasses, her face was filled with panic and fear.
But she had no choice but to stand there and wait for the guy to pack up her items.
Meanwhile, the creepy employee was staring at her with pure, unhinged lust and fanaticism.
Shiki frowned.
“Excuse me, employee!”
“Hey!
I’m talking to you!
Are you deaf?!”
Bam—!!
After shouting a few times and seeing the guy still creepily obsessing over the girl, Shiki slammed his fist hard onto the metal glass counter, creating a massive, echoing bang.
The pink haired girl jumped like a frightened rabbit, trembling slightly.
The creepy employee was startled too.
But seeing the girl get scared actually sparked a flash of anger in him, and he turned his head around in extreme annoyance.
Then, he saw Shiki staring at him with eyes so icy they looked like he was staring at a corpse.
For some reason, a massive wave of pure terror completely consumed his heart.
“C-Can I help you?” Genuine fear leaked onto his face.
“Hurry up and finish packing her stuff.
I want to buy something.” Shiki pointed at the digital camera inside the glass display.
“Y-Yes, right away.” He quickly finished bagging the girl’s items.
Casting one last reluctant glance at her, he tearfully scuttled over to help Shiki with his purchase.
Finally free from the creep, the pink haired girl let out a huge sigh of relief.
She quickly glanced at the boy who had just saved her, clutched her bag tightly, lowered her head, and ran out of the store.
Shiki didn’t dwell on what happened at the electronics store that afternoon.
He still hadn’t spoken a single word to that girl, and the two of them didn’t even know each other’s names.
He had much more important things to do lately, even putting his daily trips to the library to study chess on hold.
Every time class ended, he used the excuse of going to the bathroom to secretly monitor Class C’s movements.
After school, he silently tailed them, hiding in the shadows with his expensive new camera to snap high-quality photos of Class C’s brutal brawls.
The Class C students were completely oblivious to the fact that their every move was being photographed by a certain peeping tom.
Shiki honestly felt like he had serious potential as a paparazzi.
While everyone else was enjoying the beautiful, carefree youth of normal high schoolers, Class C had basically turned into a delinquent fighting manga.
Class C was on the verge of being completely unified.
The person leading the charge was Ryuen Kakeru.
That guy looked like a total thug, and using his solid fighting skills and sheer willpower, he had paved a bloody path to becoming the absolute dictator of his class.
Shiki was basically his biggest fan, perfectly capturing his “heroic” fighting moments in crisp definition, just waiting for the perfect time to drop a massive bomb on him.
The only part of tracking them that made Shiki feel slightly disgusted was when Ryuen Kakeru faced his final boss—a tall, dark skinned mixed race guy.
Realizing he couldn’t beat him in a straight fight, Ryuen resorted to dirty tricks.
He relentlessly harassed the guy every time he went to the bathroom until the tall guy, utterly miserable, was forced to surrender.
That was an incredibly pungent video.
It completely ruined Shiki’s appetite for several days.
“She wants to see me?” Shiki, doing his usual morning jog, looked at Kamuro Masumi running next to him in surprise.
The two of them were jogging laps around the track.
“Yeah.” Kamuro nodded.
“That brat Sakayanagi said she hasn’t seen her ‘cute Shiki-kun’ in a while and misses you very much, so she wants to meet up.” (TL:Cute…)
Seeing the completely undisguised gloating on her face, Shiki asked in annoyance, “When?”
“Eh?” Kamuro looked at him in shock, clearly not expecting him to surrender so easily.
She gave him a look of utter disgust.
“You really are useless, aren’t you…
After school at the cafe in the Keyaki Mall.
You know where that is, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know it.” Shiki nodded quickly.
He knew absolutely nothing.
Even though school had been in session for a while and he had explored most of the campus, he had barely been to Keyaki Mall.
He genuinely had no idea where the cafe was.
But it didn’t matter.
He never planned on showing up anyway.
He only agreed so he could get the info and know exactly where Sakayanagi would be.
Heh, time to play Sakayanagi!
_____________
Shiki’s eye twitched violently.
He looked at the two giant “guardian deities” completely surrounding him—one was a terrifying guy with a scarred face, the other was a sleazy looking blonde.
Standing directly in front of him was a frail girl wearing a beret, flashing a demonic little smile.
Finally, his eyes shifted to a very unnatural looking Kamuro Masumi.
One second, two seconds…
Kamuro couldn’t take it anymore.
“Don’t look at me like that!
How was I supposed to know she was going to specifically ambush you on your way back?!
And you literally promised me you’d show up, so why did you break your word!”
As she spoke, she grew more confident, glaring back at Shiki.
I’m the victim here, right?!
Shiki argued shamelessly, “Weren’t you just the messenger?
The person I made the promise to was Sakayanagi, and the person I lied to was Sakayanagi.
No matter how you look at it, I didn’t lie to you.”
Kamuro choked on her words.
“I mean, technically you’re right, but…”
(What am I supposed to do with this massive feeling of annoyance?!)
Completely ignoring Kamuro’s frustration, Sakayanagi Arisu frowned cutely.
“Shiki-kun, are you saying that you don’t want to lie to Masumi-san, but lying to me doesn’t matter?
We are friends, aren’t we?”
The silver haired girl’s soft, delicate voice could easily trigger anyone’s protective instincts, making them feel like an absolute monster for lying to such an innocent, adorable girl.
But…
“Does ‘friend’ mean becoming your literal slave like Kamuro over here?
If so, I’ll pass.”
Shiki gave her a look of deep disgust.
“Besides, to a little devil like you, it doesn’t matter anyway.
You wouldn’t actually care.”
“Hehehe, Shiki-kun,” Sakayanagi covered her mouth and giggled.
“Even I get sad and heartbroken when I get stood up and lied to.” (TL:Cute….)
“Yeah, right.” Shiki rolled his eyes.
“You already knew I wouldn’t show up, so you brought your little goons here specifically to ambush me.
Sakayanagi ignored his sarcasm.
“Not at all.
As long as it keeps Shiki-kun here, the effort is entirely worth it.”
“I’d really prefer if you didn’t try so hard.
Anyway, we’ve met and we’ve talked.
If there’s nothing else, I’m heading back.”
With that, Shiki didn’t give her a chance to react and immediately bolted.
But then he heard Sakayanagi slowly say a single sentence.
“Is that so?
I was originally planning to treat Shiki-kun to a nice meal as thanks for helping me the other day, but since you don’t have time…”
She didn’t even finish her sentence before Shiki instantly pulled a U-turn.
She actually froze in pure shock.
Seeing that no one was moving, Shiki turned his head and frowned.
“Hurry up!
I have things to do after we eat.”
Sakayanagi and the others were completely dumbfounded.
Kamuro was the first to react, groaning, “This guy is unbelievably shameless.”
The sleazy blonde guy laughed out loud.
“As expected of the guy Princess-sama is so interested in.
He truly isn’t normal.”
The scary faced guy stayed completely silent.
Fancy, trendy decorations, bright lights, mouth watering promotional posters, and air completely filled with the rich aroma of roasted meat—all of this combined was enough to make anyone drool.
Following Sakayanagi’s lead, the group arrived at a high end yakiniku restaurant.
Sakayanagi pushed the menu across the table and smiled.
“Please don’t hold back.
Think of this as my way of returning the favor for helping me.
Order whatever you like.
The rest of you, feel free to do the same.”
Kamuro snatched the menu right away, glaring at Sakayanagi.
“What do you mean ‘the rest of you’?
Are we just random background NPCs or something?”
“Kamuro, you still don’t understand this little devil’s personality?
The angrier you get, the happier she is.
Just stay completely calm and don’t argue with her.
Let her ramble on for a bit and she’ll get bored and shut up.” Shiki sounded like he was sharing wise life experience, but he was actually just aggressively roasting Sakayanagi right in front of her.
Kamuro was always sharp when it came to this.
She immediately nodded.
“Ah, understood.”
“Hehe, you two really get along so perfectly.”
Unfortunately for Sakayanagi, both of them completely ignored her.
They acted as if they hadn’t heard a single word and just focused on ordering their meat.
One of the two guardian deities, the sleazy blonde guy, was very good at reading the room and stepped in to ease the tension.
“Oh, right!
I haven’t properly introduced myself yet.
I’m Hashimoto Masayoshi.
Nice to meet you, Tsugikuni-kun.” Hashimoto smiled charmingly.
“Princess-sama mentions you a lot.
She’s told us quite a few interesting stories about you…”
“Interesting?
You mean how I look like a giant panda?”
Shiki flipped the meat the waiter had just brought over, brushed a layer of sauce on it, and complained, “Also, why do you call her ‘Princess-sama’?
Are you guys roleplaying?
Or are you just humoring a child?
Plus, compared to the traditional image of an innocent, pure princess, Sakayanagi is completely the opposite.
At best, she’s a wicked, scheming queen.
But I guess with her incredibly short height, she can’t exactly pull off that majestic aura, so calling her a frail little princess actually kinda works…”
Shiki just kept talking to himself.
Hashimoto Masayoshi broke out into a cold sweat and didn’t dare say a single word.
He instantly regretted opening his mouth.
Now, whether he spoke or stayed silent, he was in a terrible position.
He was practically sweating buckets.
“Hehe, is Shiki-kun trying to pick a fight with me?” Sakayanagi narrowed her eyes into dangerous slits.
“I’m not, I didn’t, stop making things up.”
Shiki fired off his triple denial.
Completely ignoring the thick, choking black smoke rising from his side of the grill and the deeply uncomfortable stares of everyone else at the table, he tried to brush more sauce onto his meat.
Unable to watch this disaster any longer, Kamuro snatched the brush out of his hand and grabbed a perfectly cooked piece of meat from her own plate, tossing it onto his.
“Argh, I can’t watch this anymore!
Are you a complete idiot?!
The meat is literally smoking and turning into charcoal, and you’re still cooking it?!
Just eat mine first.”
Shiki was deeply moved.
He viciously devoured a few pieces of meat and firmly decided that in the future, when Kamuro inevitably gets thrown away by that little villain Sakayanagi, he would treat her to BBQ.
“By the way, aren’t guys supposed to be natural pros at grilling meat?
How are you so useless?” Kamuro wrinkled her cute nose, giving him a look of pure disdain.
“That is pure prejudice.
Following your logic, girls who don’t like the smell of BBQ should be terrible at grilling, but look at you, you’re a complete pro.”
“Hearing you say that, for some reason, makes me feel incredibly annoyed…” Kamuro frowned deeply.