On the other side.
While the opening ceremony was still ongoing, Suzune Horikita went through an intense internal struggle, and in the end she decided to go find her own brother, Manabu Horikita.
For one thing, she had come to this school precisely to chase after her brother’s footsteps, so meeting him was inevitable sooner or later.
For another, having such a perfect reason to meet him—one that might even earn his approval—there was absolutely no justification for her to give up this opportunity.
No sooner said than done.
Suzune Horikita had always possessed strong follow-through, so after the opening ceremony ended, she chose to quietly tail him.
But after walking a certain distance, the Manabu Horikita in her line of sight suddenly halted his steps.
“Come out, Suzune.”
“Brother…”
The way Suzune Horikita looked in front of Manabu Horikita and the way she looked in front of everyone else could be described as worlds apart—the cold arrogance couldn’t be maintained, and she became even softer and meeker than the meek Shizuku.
But this time was different.
Because if the secret provided by the System Shop was real, then this time she was certain she could make her brother look at her in a whole new light!
“Sorry, it’s just that there’s something very important I wanted to confirm with you, Brother, which is why I secretly followed you…”
Manabu Horikita merely pushed up his glasses in silence, quietly concealing the complicated expression on his face.
“I have class coming up next, so you only have ten minutes.”
Suzune Horikita let out a sigh of relief.
Since her brother wasn’t giving her much time, she had no choice but to get straight to the point.
“It’s like this…”
Regarding the purchasing power of individual points, regarding whether there existed above individual points a so-called [overall points] or [class points], regarding whether the four letters A, B, C, and D carried the meaning of ranking the four classes…
Because she had already obtained precise and concrete information, working backward from the conclusion to the process was naturally not difficult, and Suzune Horikita had long since figured out how to feign ignorance while asking her questions.
Manabu Horikita was quite astonished.
After all, even he hadn’t managed to reach this level on his very first day of enrollment.
Although he should have felt gratified by this, the thought that Suzune Horikita had been assigned to Class D by the school left him able only to gaze at his younger sister—whom he hadn’t seen in two years—with mixed feelings.
Had she grown, or had she not?
“Did you deduce all of this on your own?”
“Mm… most of it was inferred thanks to the inspiration from a certain person.”
Suzune Horikita would have liked to claim the credit for herself, but her personality disdained doing such a thing, and she also feared her brother finding out afterward that she had lied.
Besides, as a matter of fact, if not for Axel End, she probably wouldn’t have bound herself to the system, and then she wouldn’t have been able to know these things at all.
Thinking about it that way, her feelings really were complicated.
Also a student of Class D?”
Manabu Horikita’s interest was piqued.
He had originally thought it wouldn’t be bad if Suzune Horikita had come up with all of this herself, but if it was the result of someone else’s inspiration… that wasn’t bad either.
At the very least, his sister wouldn’t be fighting alone.
Well, provided she could break that bad habit of hers.
“Yes, his name is… Axel End.” Suzune Horikita seemed to grind her teeth a little as she reported Axel End’s name.
She still couldn’t let go of what had happened at the school gate.
At the time, Axel End had appeared to be trying to push her away, but in reality those two hands had practically groped her entire body all over.
Just thinking about this, she felt she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep for several nights.
“Axel End…”
Manabu Horikita repeated the name under his breath.
He had no particular impression of this name, but the unexpected nature of Class D students really was hard to define in words.
Perhaps, he could change Suzune?
“Suzune, the fact that you could make such a deduction with the inspiration a classmate gave you shows that you really are a bit different from before.”
Upon hearing this, Suzune Horikita’s eyes immediately lit up, but before she could grow happy, Manabu Horikita turned around and poured cold water on her.
“But without the inspiration that Axel End brought you, would you still have been able to become aware of these problems?”
“If not, then it shows that the current you is still far from truly excellent.”
Manabu Horikita pushed up his glasses.
A fleeting glint of reflected light flashed across the lenses as he stared directly at his sister, who was gradually lowering her head again and reverting to her usual meek form.
“Go and observe that Axel End carefully, and see how he does things.”
“Next time, I hope you won’t disappoint me.”
Having said that, he turned and left.
Suzune Horikita silently watched Manabu Horikita’s departing figure, her heart at this moment filled with both joy and unwillingness.
The joy was because she had finally received her brother’s praise—although it was still phrased more or less the same as in the past, she was certain that this was praise!
The unwillingness, naturally, was because her brother believed she couldn’t discover the truth of the school by relying on her own abilities, and she couldn’t refute those words either.
“Whew~ I need to stay calm!”
Suzune Horikita took a deep breath.
Although the outcome differed somewhat from what she had anticipated, it at least demonstrated that the intelligence from the system’s transaction was basically true.
“System, open the panel.”
[Host: Suzune Horikita]
[Age: Female high school student]
[Measurements: B:79 W:54 H:79]
[Personal Situation: Single, no romantic history, brother-complex, lone-wolf individualist]
[Community of Fate: Axel End]
[Points Held: 0]
Suzune Horikita didn’t want to comment on the labels the system had slapped on her, and moved her gaze straight down.
“Axel End…”
Suzune Horikita looked at Axel End’s name displayed on the panel and murmured a line, her expression somewhat dazed.
What did Community of Fate mean?
From the literal words it was easy to understand—the fates of the two people were bound together.
Shared interests, shared responsibility, shared emotions…
This kind of relationship could be said to be even more intimate and seamless than a so-called married couple.
Even a woman like her, who had always sneered at romance, couldn’t deny that such a relationship was beautiful.
Suzune Horikita didn’t believe that anyone in this world could truly possess this fairytale-like kind of relationship, yet the system, of all things, was telling her that it could exist.
And she would even be one of the parties involved.
“I have to go and have a good talk with him.”
Setting aside the so-called Community of Fate relationship.
Since even her brother had told her to go observe Axel End carefully, to watch what actions Axel End would take, she would of course honestly do as told.
On top of that, as long as she still wanted to obtain conveniences from the System Shop, along with the so-called Community of Fate relationship, her future was practically destined to inevitably involve contact with Axel End.
It was just that, given the current relationship between the two of them…
“At worst, I’ll just be mocked.”
Suzune Horikita didn’t care about such a thing.
Because ever since she was little, she had always been the one who was excluded and isolated, so she had experienced all kinds of sneering and ridicule, being talked about behind her back, and even school bullying.
To take a step back and put it another way.
She didn’t believe the intelligence Axel End knew would be greater than her own, and this way she also had a bargaining chip to seize the initiative in their negotiation and exchange.
“But where should I go to find him?”
The idea was lovely, but Suzune Horikita suddenly discovered that she had no clue where to go to find Axel End, and for a moment she felt a little stifled.
However, her eyes soon lit up again.