The Advanced Nurturing High School teaching building, inside the Class A classroom. Afternoon hours.
Since school had let out a little early, students with nothing else to do opted to linger in the classroom for a while before leaving.
"Katsuragi-kun! Lately, I keep seeing those Class D defectives eating the mountain vegetable set als in the student cafeteria! Hahaha! Those lower-class guys, they're getting exactly what they deserve!"
"Hold your tongue, Yahiko. Never look down on other classes. Toward any class, we should maintain the constant vigilance."
"Ye... Yes! Sasuga Katsuragi-san!"
Fuyuji Mikage rested his chin on his desk, his eyes vacant as he watched Katsuragi Kohei admonish his accessory. It was just that this accessory seed perpetually dim-witted. One slap, and not long after, he forgot it and returned to his original floating-on-air state.
But that wasn't the main point.
He was currently attempting to develop a new ability. Extending his psychic power outward, he could perceive the emotions of lower-level animals. With more refinent, he could even detect a person's emotional fluctuations regarding a particular matter.
Then, by the sa logic in reverse, if he intensified the application of his psychic power onto a specific person, could he make that person feel his emotions? Or even further, guide that person's psyche, thereby achieving a dominating effect?
In other words, a Hypnosis App!
At this thought, the corners of Fuyuji's lips curled up wildly. He decided to begin his experint.
"Totsuka-san!"
A warm, friendly call echoed to the other side of the classroom.
Totsuka Yahiko turned his head. Seeing Fuyuji's utterly amiable face, he imdiately revealed a look of sheer terror. He glanced left and right, and then, with a deeply uneasy heart, pointed a trembling finger at himself.
"Yep, that's right. You."
Fuyuji beckoned him over, his smile growing ever more benevolent.
Totsuka's expression beca even more horrified. His survival instincts drove him to imdiately turn his head and send a distress signal to his towering pillar of support.
Katsuragi decisively ignored Totsuka's SOS and signaled to his classmate—underling—to hurry up and not waste any ti.
With a faint trace of resentnt and overwhelming terror, Totsuka tremblingly made his way before Fuyuji.
"Y-y-you, what do you want? Let state in advance, I will not submit to you!"
"No need to be nervous, Totsuka-san. Are you feeling anything right now?"
Fuyuji began to gradually increase his psychic intensity, careful not to actually cause his classmate any real harm.
"..."
A long while passed.
Totsuka scratched the back of his head and leaned forward. "Should... I be feeling sothing?"
"..."
Fuyuji's benevolent smile instantly froze solid.
Fine... as expected, the kind of thing you'd find in an ero-ani scenario would never actually happen to .
But no matter. In the spirit of "since I'm already here"...
He quickly rallied himself and regrouped.
"Totsuka-san, did you know that the vending machine on the first floor, east side of the teaching building, just got a new type of black soybean drink with a very peculiar taste?"
Totsuka stood there dumbly for a good long while before managing to utter a single, "Hah?"
"You know about it?" Fuyuji cheerfully repeated.
"There's... indeed a vending machine there."
"I've heard that drinks taste especially delicious after exercising. Do you think that's true?"
Totsuka thought it over for a mont, shot a glance at him, and stamred, "So?"
"So, in order for you to taste a truly delicious drink, go downstairs and bring back a bottle of that drink."
"Oh."
Five minutes later, Fuyuji looked at the ice-cold beverage before him and instantly tossed the entire Hypnosis App idea to the back of his mind.
What a load of trash. Not even half as useful as my imposing status as Class A's Minister of Revenue.
Having snuffed out this latest goal of becoming an ero-ani king, he pulled out The Missing 13th Step, which he'd borrowed from the library last ti, and began reading.
Still the sa social school of mystery as always—de-emphasizing the deductive process and instead pivoting toward contemplation of social systems and human morality.
Fuyuji gently flipped a page with his finger.
A figure casually strolled past him...
About a dozen seconds later, he flipped another page.
That figure once again strolled past him...
The finger poised to turn the page halted. He quietly observed that figure.
Another dozen seconds passed. That figure strolled past Fuyuji once again...
Unable to simply ignore it any longer, he slowly set down his book. Hesitantly, he asked:
"Bro, you... need sothing?"
"Ha?"
Kamuro Masumi turned around, folded her arms, and stared at Fuyuji with an expression of pure disgust.
"What would I need? I don't need anything!"
"Really?"
He twisted open the bottle cap and took a sip of the drink. Sure enough, the taste was peculiar—sour. Soybean juice?
"I already said, I don't need anything," Kamuro repeated once more.
"..." If you don't need anything, then why are you acting so weird?
Fuyuji lowered his head once again, pretending to continue reading, but surreptitiously observing Kamuro's reactions.
Seeing him not react, she clicked her tongue in displeasure, then once again, yet again, strolled past Fuyuji.
"..."
This baffling behavior made him tilt his head and slowly produce a "?"
After pondering it over and over, Fuyuji slowly extended the drink in his hand. "How about... I share a sip with you?"
Kamuro's long, striding legs stopped. A tic mark surfaced on her smooth forehead. She leaned in close to his ear, her volu suddenly spiking: "I told you, I don't need anything! Didn't you hear ?!"
If you don't need anything, then why do you keep circling around ?!
Having just had his ear shouted into by her, Fuyuji cupped both hands over his ears.
Was she speaking Japanese? Why could I understand every single word individually, but the mont they strung together, they beca completely incomprehensible?!
Morse code? A special Kamuro Masumi phrasebook? Or so kind of mysterious code signal established between Japanese "pals"?
Wait!
A flash of inspiration shot through his mind. Fuyuji triggered his Killer Instinct.
The Kamuro Masumi Special Phrasebook?
In other words, the Kamuro Masumi Operating Manual...
He slowly raised his head, staring at the furious Kamuro with shock and uncertainty.
Co to think of it, after the midterm exams, aside from assigning her to investigate Class D's intelligence, he hadn't really given her anything else to do, had he?
Add to that the existence of that internal bully, Sakayanagi Arisu—Kamuro barely needed to expend any effort at all to gather intel.
So, right now, Bro was probably stuck in an idle, wandering state with nothing to do.
Could it be...
Fuyuji's mouth twitched as he silently glanced at Kamuro's fair, unblemished hands.
Was she actually hinting that he should hurry up and find her sothing to do?
Recalling how he had just ordered Totsuka to go buy a drink, Kamuro had probably been watching from her seat back then.
"Um..." He probed cautiously, "Bro, you wouldn't happen to be—"
"No!"
Kamuro's face instantly flushed bright red. The words flew out before she could stop them. "I'm absolutely not thinking about that sort of thing!" She wrenched her head away, her purple half-ponytail tracing a beautiful arc through the air.
"..."
I hadn't even said it yet, and you already know what I was thinking?
"Bro, the vending machine on the first floor also has red soybean drinks and yellow soybean drinks with very good mouthfeel. I'm ordering you to go buy them for . I want to collect the complete set."
Faced with a Kamuro who had overdosed on tsundere, Fuyuji abandoned the previous dawdling, tentative approach. He decided to skip straight to the final step and directly issue her an order, using this to test the limits of what she'd accept.
"Got it."
Tossing out this sentence, Kamuro swung her long, slender legs and strode out of the classroom.
Fuyuji watched her retreating figure thoughtfully. Her ponytail bobbed behind her head in ti with her brisk, lively pace. Her white pleated skirt swayed and lifted with each alternating step.
Normally, if he asked her sothing, she'd put up a surface-level fuss and fire back at him. Now, she wasn't even firing back anymore.
It's over...
He raised a hand and pressed it to his forehead, his expression overflowing with anguish.
I spent over a month of hard work just to get those little hands of hers to behave and stop deploying her Phantom Thief ultimate technique. Now, how long has it been, and they're already itching to act up again?
Was he supposed to set up a whole string of grinding quests for her, like so idle browser ga? Log in every so often to check on her growth progress?
At this rate, the Kamuro Masumi Operating Manual was about to transform into the Kamuro Masumi Raising Sim.
"She's very cute, isn't she? Kamuro-san."
Shiraishi Asuka, who had been observing Fuyuji the entire ti from the sidelines, set down her paintbrush and spoke with a soft, smiling lilt.
"Leaving her to roam free like this won't do, you know. Kamuro-san, she... gets unhappy if she doesn't see you every day. Just like a kitten that doesn't get enough attention, she'll deliberately push things off the table to draw people's notice."
"Isn't there a one-and-done thod to fix this bad habit of hers for good?" Fuyuji, unwilling to give up, attempted to find a shortcut.
"There isn't, you know. You have to keep her company consistently." Shiraishi gently wagged a finger, chuckling. "I originally thought about having her move around together with you, so she could slowly correct her bad habits. But these past few days, it seems you've been keeping company with Morishita-san all along."
"Cough, well, what can you do." He forced two dry laughs. "Right now, Class A is in a peaceti phase. There's simply not that much work that needs to be done. Even Katsuragi has shifted his work focus to the Student Council."
"That won't do, you know." Shiraishi repeated once more. "She is your important source of support on the girls' side. When she cos back later, make sure to comfort her properly."
"Ah..."
Five minutes later.
Fuyuji interlaced his fingers and rested them before his forehead, his expression grave as he studied Kamuro. She had returned and now sat in front of him without a word, arms crossed and leaning back against her chair—just like before.
"Bro."
"Mm?" Kamuro's ears visibly perked up.
"Is there anything else you want to do?"
A mont later, he interpreted the aning in her look, which seed to be asking if he was an idiot.
If I knew what I wanted to do, would I still need to ask you?
Fuyuji felt a headache coming on.
He genuinely had no idea what task to assign to his pal.
The sumr vacation island special exam had already been handed over to Katsuragi to investigate. Within the Student Council, there should be plenty of opportunities to co across intelligence on that matter. As long as they could find out whether there had ever been a deserted-island-survival-type special exam in the past, they could basically confirm it with eighty to ninety percent certainty.
As for intelligence on the other classes.
Hashimoto Masayoshi had Class C under his watch.
Class B... uh, if he just called Ichinose, she'd probably frankly hand over all her class's intel without a second thought.
As for Class D...
Fuyuji counted them off on his fingers.
Cha-Cha, every few days, would co storming over as if about to explode from sheer rage, venting furiously at him in an uncontrolled output spree. After finishing, she'd toss a photo at him, dust off her butt, and leave. The only way to describe it was: absolute swagger the mont she pulls her pants up.
Horikita's little sister wouldn't intentionally leak intelligence, but that unbending, one-track mind of hers—with just a bit of guesswork, one could easily figure out what was happening in Class D.
Sakayanagi Arisu... mm, she probably wanted Class D dead even more than he did.
Not to ntion all those individual Class D students who were fundantally lacking in quality and had mouths that leaked like sieves.
Looking at it this way, sending Bro to probe Class D for intel back then had been a complete waste of her talents.
This degree of leakage rivaled a distillery with water mixed into the wine. There was simply no need for her to investigate it.
After pondering for a mont, Supre Commander Fuyuji decided to issue a directive to his subordinate and pal, Captain Kamuro.
"I've recently discovered that a pigeon I want to ta has gotten a bit too fat from my feeding. Go and help slim it back down."
Kamuro blinked, said nothing, and simply continued staring at him.
And what else?
"..."
Not only was one task insufficient, she was actively asking for more work on her own?
You had to realize, Kamuro only received a ager laborer's wage for doing things for him. At most, he'd use the public funds to issue her a tiny amount of points under the pretext of "outstanding contributions to class intelligence reconnaissance."
What kind of new-century model employee was this?
Thinking it over again and again, and genuinely unable to co up with any task to assign to her, Fuyuji began digging up old accounts.
"Bro, how's your progress on the 'befriending Sakayanagi Arisu' front?"
In the span of just a few short seconds, Kamuro's expression visibly morphed from anticipation into utter disgust. She pulled out her phone and thrust it into his hands.
"Read it yourself!"
That much disgust?
Skipping over the long exchange of pleasantries between Sakayanagi Arisu and Kamuro above, and the ssages where Sakayanagi played innocent while leaking intel.
[Sakayanagi Arisu: Kamuro-san, are you free this afternoon? I wonder if I might have the honor of your company at the Palette Cafe.]
[Kamuro Masumi: Can you not talk in such a twisted way? I'm getting goosebumps just listening to you.]
[Sakayanagi Arisu: Is that so? This is the etiquette of a proper young lady, you see. Kamuro-san would do well to learn it too. It may co in handy once you're married soday.]
[Kamuro Masumi: Spare . I'm never marrying a guy like that in this lifeti. What did you call over for?]
[Sakayanagi Arisu: It is primarily to express my gratitude to you. I have recently made so new friends in class. I may be sowhat busier going forward, and won't have as much ti to chat with you.]
Friends? Didn't she say she'd never managed to make any friends? How co she suddenly has friends now?
No wonder Pal was looking so weepy. Turns out it wasn't just on his side—even Sakayanagi, whom she was supposed to assist from ti to ti, had reduced the ti spent with her.
A full 10 minutes had elapsed between the tistamps of the next ssage on the screen before Kamuro had sent her reply.
[Kamuro Masumi: Whatever.]
[Sakayanagi Arisu: Then it's settled. 6 PM this evening, Palette Cafe. I shall await your arrival.]
Having fully grasped the sequence of events, Fuyuji returned the phone to Kamuro. Looking at her with pity in his eyes, he said:
"Bro, I've recently started playing a mobile ga called FGO. It requires an imnsely powerful liver. In a bit, I'll give you my account info. Go grind out a fully Limit Broken Jeanne for ."
"If that's still not enough, I happen to have free ti this weekend. The amusent park over at Keyaki Mall has a two-person ride. Next ti, let's go together. We can burn off so of your excess energy while we're at it."
"Whatever," Kamuro averted her head.
She had finally returned to the standard script. Seeing her back in her tsundere mode, Fuyuji let out a long, deep breath of relief.
After chatting a little longer, once it seed about ti, Kamuro picked up her satchel and left the classroom.
"Masumi-san, she's very cute, isn't she?"
Seated together at so unknown point, Shiraishi Asuka and Fuyuji both watched Kamuro's departure.
"I guess you could call that cute?" Fuyuji muttered.
After all, that gap-moe tsundere expression of hers really was heart-stirringly adorable.
"By the way, Shiraishi-san, want to go grab a al together later?"
These past days, Morishita Ai had been utterly absorbed by Fat Pigeon. The mont class ended, she'd run straight to his room. So right now, he was in the state of an empty-nest elder.
"We'll talk about that in a bit. There's sothing that's been bothering ."
"What is it?"
"You're going to the Keyaki Mall amusent park this weekend with Kamuro-san?"
"Yeah, what about—"
Shiraishi quietly leaned in close. Her violet-athyst eyes were so serene they almost seed to speak.
And what about ?
The out-of-left-field Big Eyes Offensive completely blindsided Fuyuji.
"Then... co along together?"
"Don't want to!" Shiraishi refused with a beaming smile.
"Switch to a different day and go with just you?"
"Okay."
"Then it's settled. Co on, let's go eat."
Fuyuji breathed a sigh of relief and reached for his bag.
"About that, you'll still have to wait a little longer." Shiraishi unexpectedly refused him yet again. "Kamuro-san might need so backup over there."
Backup? What backup?
Inspiration tore through Fuyuji's mind like a bolt of lightning. The threads of thought connected in an instant. He stiffly turned his head and looked toward the direction Kamuro had departed.
Oh, crap! Bro!
Since when would Sakayanagi Arisu waste her own precious ti treating Pal to a al out of sheer kindness? Had she ever done anything like that before?
Why had that earlier exchange felt so off? What was that woman up to, seeking Pal out at a ti like this?
New friends she'd just made? More like new underlings, right?!
He launched himself from his seat like a spring-loaded missile and bolted straight toward Kamuro's direction.
I'm being NTR'd!!
About a dozen or so seconds later, Fuyuji, having already dashed out of the classroom, ca sprinting right back in one fluid streak.
He grabbed the hand of Shiraishi, who was currently watching the drama unfold, and, under her utterly incredulous stare, made a beeline straight for the Palette Cafe.
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