"..."
[On Call]
The personal terminal's screen remained bright.
The words On Call and the name of the person on the other end were clearly displayed.
"Haa..." Horikita Suzune let out a long breath and gently closed the diary in her hands.
"Today's reading complete. Reading points +1."
The familiar voice echoed in her ears as usual.
But Horikita's expression was unusually complicated.
Today's diary was long.
The longest one so far.
And yet, even so, she could clearly feel the dissatisfaction of the person behind it—feelings that hadn't fully been vented yet.
He hadn't even finished writing.
"Have you finished reading?" she asked softly, closing her eyes and leaning back against her chair.
Soon, a slightly gritted voice came from the terminal:
"Yeah. I finished."
"Even more disgusting than I imagined… Chabashira Sae."
On the other end of the call, Kushida Kikyo's expression was extremely ugly.
She had thought selling incomplete information was already low enough.
She hadn't expected Chabashira to go even lower.
Dragging down her own class.
Teaching Class D with personal obsession.
Giving them fake exam ranges.
The diary was absolutely right.
She was a corpse.
Someone who had already died more than ten years ago,
Dragging a dead body into the lives of this generation of freshmen.
A living corpse.
"'Teachers at Advanced Nurturing High can't be trusted,'" Horikita said calmly.
"The diary already said that."
"But even so, I didn't expect Chabashira-sensei to go this far."
"I thought that at the very least, she'd do her basic job properly."
After all, the diary had also once said teachers could be trusted.
It sounded contradictory.
But maybe it meant:
Chabashira as a teacher could be trusted,
But Chabashira as a person couldn't.
Now, though, that theory was clearly wrong.
Chabashira Sae simply couldn't be trusted at all.
"So," Kushida said, resting her cheek on one hand and tapping the desk irritably, "what are you going to do?"
"Stand on the podium again like last time?"
"Bow your head and apologize?"
"Tell everyone the exam scope is wrong, tell them to ask Chabashira, and start over from scratch?"
If they prioritized the class, that was undoubtedly the best choice.
There were still two full weeks before midterms.
It wasn't too late to fix things.
But Horikita gently shook her head.
"No."
"I won't do anything."
"If anyone's going to act, it should be you."
"Actually, I should be the one asking," she said.
"Kushida Kikyo, what are you going to do?"
She threw the question back at her.
"I'm obviously going to do… nothing," Kushida replied with a sweet smile.
"Why do you think I'd do anything at all?"
"Since the day I got this stupid diary, I haven't done anything, have I?"
"It wrote a lot. It said a lot."
"But that doesn't mean I have to act on it."
"And it doesn't mean I have to change myself for others."
Kushida stood up.
First, she vented her frustration by casually tossing the diary away.
Then she threw her terminal onto the bed.
After that, she kicked her chair aside and flopped back down.
"Look at how many likes those messages get," she said, grabbing her terminal.
"But in the end, how many people actually came out and played along with that guy?"
"Besides you, idiot, and that lesbian princess?"
"Everyone else just watches."
"Do you understand?"
"You trust the diary too much."
She said it bluntly.
If she thought about it from Horikita's perspective,
She might have trusted the diary too.
After all, it had given her so much guidance.
Pointed out so many problems inside her.
Most of the entries were directly related to her.
Her brother's 'trial.'
The special exams.
Her evaluation.
It wasn't hard to understand why Horikita cared so much about what the diary wrote.
But if that continued—
Wouldn't they just become puppets?
Doing whatever the diary said.
Moving wherever the person behind it pulled the strings.
With no will of their own.
…Then how was she supposed to find out who was behind the diary?
"I… um… you're right," Horikita said after a brief pause.
Then she nodded.
"I'll be more careful about judging what's true and what's false."
The diary wasn't always right.
At least, the 'trial' part had deceived her.
She still couldn't forget her brother's confused expression when she had named Yamauchi Haruki.
Even though Kushida said that meant she'd chosen wrong,
She still felt she'd been tricked.
But at least today's entry…
Probably wasn't a lie.
"…I hope you really remember that," Kushida sighed.
Then she lightly pressed the hang-up button.
The beeping echoed.
Then the terminal went silent.
Only then did Kushida stare blankly at the ceiling.
She raised her hand and covered her eyes.
"Why do I have to stay in touch with that idiot woman so late at night…"
"But if I really leave her alone, who knows what ridiculous thing she'll do next."
"How did I suddenly turn into her babysitter?"
"Ahhhhhh—!"
She kicked away the blanket in frustration and stretched out.
"I'm going to puke."
Hesitantly, she reached her hand downward.
"..."
So… empty.
"…Turn off the light."
She stopped herself in time.
Clenched her fingers tightly.
And turned off the room's light.
The dormitory sank into darkness.
And in the black night,
She once again began to fantasize about someone being able to love her.
Not a "friend" connected through the diary like Horikita.
But someone of the opposite sex who could truly love her.
Not the pleasant mask she wore.
But the thing hidden deep inside—
The part that probably no one would ever like…
Her true self.
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