"Target confirmed."
Kitahara narrowed his eyes, looking toward the black crystal atop the main building's rooftop.
This rhombic crystal was about the size of a human head, floating in midair in a manner that defied all science, its interior light pulsing steadily like a keyboard's breathing light; each illumination sent ripples through the surrounding space, looking extraordinarily miraculous.
"Is this the spatial crystal capable of pulling the present world into Otherworld?"
Kitahara's expression turned solemn as he silently activated the ability [Health Bar Warrior].
With his eyes warming slightly, a virtual health bar soon surfaced quietly above the black crystal.
"It actually has a full two thousand HP; if it were an ordinary person, they wouldn't even be able to break it even if they found it, right?"
Kitahara clicked his tongue softly, then firmly clenched his right fist.
True Damage ability... activate!
As long as he could break through defense, there was nothing that couldn't be resolved with a single punch!
During this past period, Kitahara hadn't completely indulged in the land of gentle pleasures; while teasing the girls, he naturally hadn't forgotten to obtain plenty of True Damage points... err, love points, rather.
In short, Kitahara's current True Damage reserves were exceptionally abundant.
As the True Damage power stacked continuously, a radiant light soon ignited over Kitahara's right fist, distorting even the air slightly.
"Serious Punch."
With a serious expression, Kitahara stepped forward and threw a clean, decisive punch.
Boom!
Wrapped in layers of spatial ripples, the seemingly indestructible black spatial crystal instantly fractured with countless cracks across its surface under Kitahara's 'light' punch, spreading rapidly like a spiderweb to cover the entire crystal.
Crack!
Upon reaching its limit, the black crystal shattered abruptly, turning into a fist-sized black vortex eye out of thin air, stirring up a bitter gale on the rooftop.
Sensing a strong suction approaching, Kitahara decisively took a vigilant step back.
Fortunately, the black vortex was merely a fleeting glimpse, dispersing quietly with a poof like a reflection in water or flowers in a mirror.
The open rooftop quickly settled down, a storm resolving silently into nothingness.
"...Done."
Kitahara checked thoroughly once, and after confirming no hidden dangers remained, he finally exhaled softly and relaxed his mind.
"Having thwarted Shimizu-san's 'scheme', I should be able to lay low and quietly build up strength next..."
Snap.
Kitahara snapped his fingers lightly, activating his domain, and with hands in his pockets, walked to the edge of the rooftop, calmly looking down.
It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon; the sun had quietly drifted westward, no longer glaring.
As the closing time drew near, the school festival grew even livelier instead.
Looking down, the bustling crowd below was packed with people.
Various stalls, students walking in groups of two or three, couples holding their children's hands, elderly pairs strolling side-by-side, primary schoolers weaving through the crowd... the entire scene was filled with the warmth of everyday life.
To ordinary students, this was merely a rather standard evening, looking forward to the end of the school festival, looking forward to going home, looking forward to tomorrow; only many years later, walking along the streets of an unfamiliar city as this exact frame flashes back in their minds, would they truly appreciate the preciousness of this moment.
One can never simultaneously possess youth and the profound appreciation of youth.
Yet Kitahara could.
In Kitahara's eyes, a seemingly ordinary day was precisely the true moment of happiness in life.
Buzz, buzz.
The vibration of his phone suddenly broke the serenity.
Kitahara took out his phone; it was a message sent by Mutsumi, though its contents left one utterly baffled:
"If I fall into hell, will Makoto-kun come to save me regardless of the danger?"
"Huh???"
Looking at the message on screen, Kitahara knitted his brows slightly.
"What is Mutsumi-chan saying?"
"..."
The message was instantly marked as read.
Mutsumi: "Nothing, just curious."
Kitahara: "Mutsumi-chan must already have the answer in her heart, right?"
Mutsumi: "Even though I have an answer, I still want to hear Makoto-kun say it out loud himself."
Kitahara: "...No matter when, no matter where, I will never abandon Mutsumi-chan."
Mutsumi: "Ehehe, I really, truly, love Makoto-kun the most."
"..."
Putting away his phone, Kitahara was still slightly frowning.
The message seemed very ordinary; if it had been sent by Anon who loved acting spoiled, there naturally wouldn't be any issue, but right now it was sent by the kuudere little cucumber, and moreover it seemed to be the second personality controlling Mutsumi's body, which naturally made one very concerned.
"I need to head over and clarify Mutsumi-chan's situation..."
With a light leap, Kitahara jumped straight down from the edge of the fifth-floor rooftop.
Thud.
Landing steadily, Kitahara dusted off the edge of his clothes and strode directly toward the grand auditorium.
In the backstage lounge of the auditorium.
Sakiko and the others, who had finished their performance, had already changed their clothes and happened to push the door open to step out.
"Kitahara-san, you're here."
"Kitahara-kun, how's the situation?"
"Is Makoto-kun hurt?"
"..."
Seeing Kitahara appear, the girls chimed in one after another with concern over the situation.
It was worth mentioning that, in addition to Sakiko's five-member group that had just finished performing, Hitori, Kita, Nijika, and Ryo were all there as well, along with Taki's two friends, Uika and Umiri.
Among them, Nijika and her group were concerned about Kitahara's safety, while Uika and Umiri had clearly come for Taki... wait, that was wrong; Uika Misumi's eyes were fixed on Sakiko the whole time, so she was likely here for Sakiko.
"Don't worry," Kitahara nodded gently, saying in a warm voice, "The crisis has been successfully resolved."
"That's good," Soyo breathed a gentle sigh of relief, looking over with concern, "Kitahara-kun isn't hurt, right?"
Kitahara gave a thumbs-up: "Completely unharmed."
Sakiko crossed her arms over her chest, asking softly:
"Did Kitahara-kun run into Shimizu-san?"
Kitahara paused slightly, quickly responding:
"...I actually didn't run into her."
Under normal circumstances, before the plan reached ultimate success, Shimizu Rin should have been guarding beside the black crystal, but in fact she hadn't shown up at all.
Was it carelessness, fear of a direct confrontation, or was she plotting something else in secret?
After pondering briefly, Kitahara quickly eliminated the first possibility.
The eyepatch girl whose goal was to make 'humanity feel pain' was clearly not a careless person; otherwise, she wouldn't have seen through the plan of Kitahara and the others.
Eliminating that option, between the remaining two, Kitahara leaned toward the latter, sensing that the eyepatch girl had another scheme.
Yet this morning in the club room, the Book of Answers had made it very clear that Shimizu Rin's 'action turn' for today was already over...
Speak of the devil.
While Kitahara was chatting quietly with Sakiko, the eyepatch girl Shimizu Rin suddenly appeared in the hallway, calmly walking toward everyone.
"Eh, it's Shimizu-san."
"What did she come here for?"
"No idea."
"Could it be a declaration of war?"
"..."
The girls quickly noticed Shimizu Rin, all looking over vigilantly, and the atmosphere in the hallway rapidly grew tense.
The eyepatch girl remained expressionless, completely unbothered by the shifting atmosphere, calmly walking up beside Mutsumi before coming to a stop.
"Shimizu-san, what did you come here to do?"
Kitahara frowned slightly, the bad premonition in his heart quietly deepening.
"..."
Shimizu Rin didn't speak; instead, it was Mutsumi who suddenly opened her mouth:
"Makoto-kun, clearly I was first..."
"Huh?"
"Clearly I was first, so why did you confess to Taki on the rooftop first? Why did you do [BEEP—] with Taki first?"
"..."
"Wait, wait, wait, what did she just say?"
"Taki has already done that kind of thing with Kitahara-san?"
Compared to those who knew the insider details, Umiri Yahata and Uika Misumi were completely pure onlookers.
Hearing Mutsumi's 'shockingly bold words' right now, both girls blushed crimson, their hearts racing.
For girls like them who had never been in a relationship, that kind of thing was simply way too distant.
"Mutsumi-san's tone is so strange..." Uika Misumi whispered worriedly into her friend's ear, "Could Taki be a third party...?"
She had secretly followed Sakiko's band since middle school, so recognizing Mutsumi was not surprising.
"Impossible! Taki isn't that kind of person!"
Umiri Yahata decisively shook her head in denial, though a touch of hesitation lingered in her tone.
While Taki wouldn't be a homewrecking third party, what if it was fair competition?
Thinking of this, Umiri Yahata couldn't help lifting her eyes quietly to steal a glance at Kitahara's profile; with just one look, his maxed-out charm made her heart skip a beat.
A girl's sixth sense was always extraordinarily sharp; Umiri Yahata could clearly sense that the girls present all possessed obvious affection toward Kitahara, and even she herself felt a bit...
"Mutsumi, what nonsense are you spouting?"
Taki's face flushed crimson rapidly, unable to hold back a flustered shout:
"I didn't do that kind of thing with him at all!"
Although there were kisses, hugs, lifts, and even serving each other... she indeed hadn't been fully devoured yet!
Besides, it was fine to talk about this sort of thing in private, but why say it in front of a whole crowd!
Mutsumi looked over calmly:
"I heard it with my own ears. At noon today, Makoto-kun confessed to Taki on the rooftop, and Taki agreed."
"Th-That's because..."
Taki's face burned red as she stammered, wanting to deny it.
Yet after all, it was something she had done, and on top of that she had been overheard by Mutsumi, so there was really no way to lie.
Now that Mutsumi had suddenly exposed it in public, while Taki was filled with shame, her anger gauge rose involuntarily as well.
"What do you mean by 'you first'? Matters of feelings don't go by first-come, first-served at all, right?"
"Of course they do."
Mutsumi remained expressionless:
"I knew Makoto-kun first, and I was also the first to agree that everyone could date together. Clearly it was all me first, so Makoto-kun should have confessed to me first, not Taki."
"D-Dating together?"
Umiri Yahata and Uika Misumi both widened their eyes, looking at each other in disbelief.
"What does dating together mean?"
"Could it be..."
"No matter how you think about it, that's impossible, right?"
Uika Misumi bit her lower lip, suddenly recalling that day at the yakiniku restaurant when she saw Sakiko standing on tiptoes, adjusting Kitahara's collar in an incomparably natural manner.
"Could it be that Sakiko is also dating Kitahara-san together..."
"Impossible!"
"There's absolutely no way Sakiko would agree to something so outrageous!"
Yet looking at Sakiko's calm expression, Uika Misumi grew tense involuntarily, instinctively taking a step to Sakiko's side, wanting to ask and clear things up.
"...Something's wrong."
Ryo crossed her arms over her chest, knitting her brows slightly:
"These aren't words Mutsumi would say."
"Indeed," Kita nodded in agreement. "Mutsumi-san used to be an emotionless kuudere girl who loved eating cucumbers, but now she feels like a completely different person... could her second personality have emerged?"
"Must be it," Nijika pressed a hand to her forehead. "Let's not talk about that for now. Let's first persuade Mutsumi and Taki; if there's anything to say, we'll talk after going back tonight."
(S-So scary...)
Hitori, however, was trembling all over, having already quietly retreated to a corner far from the crowd.
(This is the legendary battlefield of love, isn't it?)
(As expected, it's so terrifying.)
(Mutsumi-san and Taki-san aren't going to get into a fight, right?)
(Clearly everyone was getting along so happily before, so why did Mutsumi-san suddenly say such things...)
"Shimizu-san, you've crossed the line."
Kitahara frowned, his gaze turning sharp as he looked at Shimizu Rin.
Just from her standing posture, it was obvious the eyepatch girl had been in contact with Mutsumi in private.
Targeting him was fine, but targeting the girls around him was not.
Originally he had planned to 'play along with the act', but now, Kitahara decided to change his mind—since she dared to tamper with Mutsumi, she had to be prepared to get sunk to the bottom of Tokyo Bay.
"It's already past five o'clock, yet the school hasn't been pulled into Otherworld... Kitahara-san must have destroyed the spatial crystal on the roof of the main building, right?"
Shimizu Rin was expressionless, seemingly not noticing the chilling aura emanating from Kitahara at all, calmly speaking to herself:
"That is an item bestowed by Lord God. Once activated, it can drag everyone within range straight into Otherworld."
Umiri Yahata and Uika Misumi held their breath nervously, feeling they were listening to something utterly incredible.
God?
Otherworld?
Those were terms that only appeared in manga and light novels, right!
"The larger the crystal, the larger the effective range, and the longer the preparation time," Shimizu Rin said with completely flat intonation, sounding like an emotionless doll girl. "By the same logic, the smaller the crystal, the smaller the range, the shorter the preparation time, and even ordinary people can activate the crystal."
"..."
A bad premonition abruptly surged into his heart, and Kitahara's gaze quickly fell upon Mutsumi.
"Makoto-kun, clearly I was first..."
Mutsumi unclenched the right hand she had been tightly gripping, and a black micro-crystal floated up from her palm.
At this very moment, cracks had already spread all across the crystal.
Crack.
The black spatial crystal suddenly shattered, transparent spatial ripples expanding outward in rings, followed by the void tearing apart and turning into a deep black hole, aiming to swallow Mutsumi inside.
Kitahara appeared beside Mutsumi as if teleporting, grabbing her right hand in an instant.
Their eyes met.
Flashing back to those messages Mutsumi had sent earlier, Kitahara finally understood Mutsumi's true intention.
The target of this crystal wasn't to banish Kitahara, but Mutsumi herself.
Mutsumi's second personality was super obsessive; activating the spatial crystal right in front of Kitahara at this moment was to force him into making a choice.
Either let go of his hand and leave Mutsumi to plunge into Otherworld alone.
Or accompany Mutsumi, both being swallowed together, so that she could monopolize Kitahara in Otherworld.
"The suction is immense, but it's not a real black hole after all..."
Kitahara took a deep breath, tightly gripping Mutsumi's right hand, pulling her outward bit by bit.
"Ngh..."
The devouring pull of the spatial vortex was extraordinarily strong for an ordinary human; under the strain, a look of pain instantly surfaced on Mutsumi's face.
Even though it was Mutsumi's second personality controlling the body right now, once the physical body shattered, the real Mutsumi would die along with it.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Kitahara's eyes, then his gaze quickly grew resolute. Letting out a helpless sigh, he spread his arms and pulled Mutsumi into his embrace.
Since there was no way to pull Mutsumi out, he would plunge into Otherworld together with her.
What he had promised, he would naturally follow through on.
Although Mutsumi's second personality was infuriating, he would never abandon Mutsumi no matter what.
Going along to Otherworld himself at least offered hope of returning; if he left Mutsumi to fall into Otherworld alone... no matter how he looked at it, it would be a guaranteed death sentence.
"Makoto-kun, I'm sorry..."
Mutsumi's eyes widened, the gloom in her eyes suddenly dispersing, a remorseful expression appearing on her pretty face as she reached out, wanting to push Kitahara away.
"K-Kitahara-san!"
Hitori, hiding in the corner, instinctively rushed forward, throwing her arms around Kitahara in an attempt to help.
"Kitahara-kun!"
"You silly Mutsumi, don't do something stupid!"
Being closest, Sakiko and Taki naturally wouldn't stand idly by either, both stepping forward to help.
"Sakiko, be careful!"
Seeing the most important person to her diving into danger, Uika Misumi grew frantic in an instant, rushing forward heedlessly.
However, in the next second.
The spatial vortex suddenly expanded, abruptly swallowing several people whole.
Pop.
Accompanied by the soft sound of a popping bubble, the spatial vortex vanished in an instant, and the hallway fell dead silent.
All of this took a while to describe, but in truth occurred within the span of a single breath.
Just as the other girls were preparing to rush forward and help, they saw Kitahara and several of the girls vanish in the blink of an eye, leaving them to stop in their tracks at a complete loss.
"Kitahara-san and everyone vanished in the blink of an eye?!"
Kita stamped her feet in anxiety:
"Shimizu-san, what on earth did you do?!"
The eyepatch girl remained expressionless:
"I did nothing. It was Mutsumi-san herself who chose to plunge into Otherworld."
Just as Kitahara would investigate Shimizu Rin, this eyepatch girl naturally investigated Kitahara in secret as well, through which she discovered the issues with Mutsumi.
The originally emotionless cucumber girl, after gradually regaining her feelings, had her possessiveness grow with each passing day. Coupled with Kitahara 'not returning at night, lingering amidst flowers', under that internal suppression, her second personality finally broke through the seal and quietly took control of her body.
Thus Shimizu Rin paid a direct visit, handed over the spatial crystal, and explained the exact effects of its use.
The primary personality of Mutsumi had fallen into withdrawal, while the second personality was super obsessive; to monopolize Kitahara, she brazenly chose to cooperate with Shimizu Rin, ultimately resulting in the scene that just unfolded.
Aside from handing the spatial crystal to Mutsumi, Shimizu Rin had done nothing extra, and there was no malice whatsoever throughout the entire process. The true initiator was actually Mutsumi, which was why the Book of Answers had provided no warning.