Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
----------
Karuizawa glanced at Akira, her gaze casually sweeping around his dorm room.
The room was almost identical to her last visit, still lacking any proper furniture, with only the open laptop on the desk being particularly conspicuous. The screen was playing anime, showing a brown-haired girl tucked under a blanket, tapping on her phone screen, the recipient noted as "Shoko."
Karuizawa wasn't exactly knowledgeable about anime, but in Japan, where anime posters were ubiquitous on the streets, she'd absorbed some of it by osmosis.
'I didn't expect Shimizu to like watching anime?'
A hint of surprise arose in her heart.
In her impression, he should be the type of muscle fanatic obsessed with training, and recently he'd become engrossed in boxing, spending all his free time at the gym. This didn't fit the "otaku" label at all.
Wait, where did he get the points to buy a laptop?
She suddenly remembered that annoying "Professor" in their class had said he spent 80,000 points to buy the laptop.
And this month, because of renting surveillance last month, everyone in Class D had to pay additional points, leaving only 8,000 in hand.
'80,000... could it be that he bought it with the money I gave him last month?'
The more Karuizawa thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, and her lips unconsciously pursed, looking as if she had an invisible burden, with an indescribable awkwardness.
Of course, she still didn't dare to voice any opinions. Mainly because she was afraid Akira would stop caring about her.
Thinking of this, her gaze fell on the basket of mineral water bottles behind the door, and she walked over, casually picking up a bottle.
Out of the corner of her eye, she unconsciously glanced at Akira, seeing no sign of life from him.
'Hmm? Does he mean I can take his water?'
Thinking this, she was bolder this time, and deliberately sat down on the edge of his bed.
Akira still looked indifferent, or rather, his gaze was no longer on her. He was engrossed in watching the anime on his laptop.
Karuizawa unscrewed the cap and chugged two mouthfuls.
The cold water slid down her throat, finally soothing her throat, which had been burning from all the cursing.
She sat on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs, her gaze involuntarily drifting to the screen. The brown-haired girl was still tossing and turning under the covers, her phone screen lit up, and the text messages vaguely showed words like "sorry" and "forgive me."
"What anime is this?" she couldn't help but ask, her tone still carrying a hint of lingering anger, but more relaxed than before.
Akira didn't take his eyes off the screen, vaguely replying, "MyGo!"
"Is it about a band then?" Karuizawa raised an eyebrow.
She wasn't unfamiliar with this genre. There were always clubs performing bands at the school festival.
"Something like that." Akira tapped his finger on the computer, switching to full-screen mode. "But the main point isn't singing, it's the band breaking up."
The screen suddenly cut to a night scene, where the brown-haired girl was constantly apologizing to someone named Shoko, her expression so agitated she looked like she was about to cry.
"They're arguing too," she mumbled softly.
"Yes, probably due to a misunderstanding, mainly because that blue-haired girl isn't quite human." Akira finally gave her some attention. "Similar to you guys."
"No, it's not! Who isn't human?!" Karuizawa immediately retorted. "We were doing it for Chiaki..." Her words trailed off halfway, and she suddenly realized that her arguments with Yukimura and the others actually had no real meaning, and only made Matsushita more awkward caught in the middle.
"Since it happened yesterday, I'll help you handle it. After all, we have a protection agreement, don't we?" Akira specifically turned to look at her then, his tone serious.
"Is that so?!" Karuizawa looked at his serious expression, and a huge sigh of relief escaped her heart.
Sure enough, he was still very good at keeping his promises.
"Wait..." She suddenly seemed to notice something, a very bad premonition. "Why do you say 'starting from yesterday'?"
"Because our contract officially ended yesterday." Akira looked at her and explained word by word, "You should remember, the contract started around 5 PM on the first Friday of last month, right? And today's already the weekend of the first week of the second month."
"Then I'll just pay you again!" Karuizawa quickly interjected, her voice carrying a forced calmness.
She'd not thought about renewing the points this month, but most people in Class D didn't have much spare money, and after scrounging around, she'd only managed to save 30,000.
But Akira shook his head. "Actually, I don't plan to continue protecting you."
"Why?!" Karuizawa's heart sank sharply, her voice trembling, but she still feigned composure and discussed, "I have 30,000 now. I'll make up the remaining 50,000 as soon as possible. Can you give me a few days' grace period?"
"It has nothing to do with points." Akira sighed, his eyes growing more serious. "It seems you've violated the terms of our original contract."
"What terms? Wasn't it just that I pay 80,000 points, and you protect me?" Karuizawa frowned, clearly not realizing the problem.
"My condition was, first, for you to join the boxing club, so I could legitimately protect you under the title of 'club member protection manager.'" Akira looked at her. "But what about you? You've been absent for several days in a row, haven't you? You should remember the rules when you joined. If you're absent for more than three days, the club president has the right to expel you. Now tell me, how many days have you been absent?"
"..." Karuizawa opened her mouth, unable to say a word.
"I originally had you join the boxing club not just to give me a legitimate reason, but also so that when I wasn't around, the club president could look out for you." Akira looked at her downcast expression, his tone tinged with confusion. "I can't understand why you'd skip so many days. Is it really that tiring? But your work isn't useless. The upperclassmen should give you points as a reward, and they'll protect you too. The boxing club upperclassmen are very protective of their own!"
Ichinose a few days ago was the best example.
Karuizawa was slightly stunned. She hadn't actually heard the first half of his sentence at all.
Instead, her attention was on the latter half.
'Protection from upperclassmen?'
That's right! Chiaki had also told her that upperclassmen were a very good backing.
"The boxing club upperclassmen will they really protect the manager?"
"Otherwise? If a club's manager is bullied, how could the members be indifferent? They'd definitely find a way to stand up for you. Recently, the boxing club upperclassmen resolved an issue for Class 1-B."
Akira had no reason to lie to her.
Moreover, she'd vaguely heard about the incident in Class 1-B from other classes recently.
She hadn't expected that the ones who stepped in were actually the boxing club?
Karuizawa's heart sank, and in a daze, she truly felt that she'd made a mistake. Taking so many days off was an utterly foolish decision.
"Shimizu-kun, that, you should be able to make President Sato go easy on me, right?" She thought of this, her eyes filled with obvious pleading, and her voice softened, "Aren't you two quite close?"
"I can't help you with this," Akira refused without hesitation, "You'll have to rely on yourself."
"This..." Karuizawa's face instantly became flustered, her heart felt as if it was clutched by an invisible hand, and her panic grew more and more intense.
A look of embarrassment crept onto her face, and even her fingertips began to feel cold.
If she was really dismissed from the boxing club, Akira would most likely not protect her anymore.
If she couldn't find a protector in this school... She didn't dare to think further.