The equipment room partition was cramped and airless.
Ichinose Honami stood with her head bowed, studying the combat suit she'd just pulled on.
The suit had been tailored to Chris's measurements, which meant on her it ran slightly large — the collar slipping down to reveal the pale, faintly rosy line of her collarbone. She had to press one hand against her chest just to keep anything from spilling out.
There was no dramatic surge of power like she'd been half-expecting. No sci-fi movie moment where the material contracted automatically and sealed itself perfectly against her skin.
It just... sat there. A very well-made piece of cosplay. Pretty to look at. Mildly mortifying to wear. And beyond that — completely, stubbornly inert.
"...Nothing? No reaction at all?"
She'd had a feeling, deep down. But the confirmation still stung a little.
She didn't dwell on it. Moving quickly and efficiently, she changed back into her school uniform, folded the still-warm combat suit into a neat square, and pushed open the partition door.
Kushida Kikyo was waiting right outside. The moment she saw Ichinose back in her regular clothes, her expression fell.
"So... it didn't work?"
Ichinose gave a helpless shake of her head and held the suit out to Chris.
"I'm sorry, Chris-kun. On me it did absolutely nothing — it was just like wearing an ordinary compression shirt."
"Makes sense."
Chris tucked the suit back into his bag without ceremony, his tone flat and matter-of-fact.
"If equipment this powerful could be freely lent out, it would gut the value of S-Points entirely."
"People who aren't willing to put themselves on the line could just borrow gear from someone who is and skate through on borrowed strength. That runs completely counter to the Black Sphere's design — and this school's, for that matter. Survival of the fittest."
"Besides — the final say on the rules belongs to the system, not us."
"You're right, Chris-kun. I was being greedy."
Ichinose Honami nodded obediently.
Though the moment her gaze accidentally crossed Chris's, she flinched back like she'd touched a live wire.
It wasn't that there'd been any smell. The suit had been clean. Nothing to object to on any rational level.
But the simple fact that this tight-fitting garment had, just minutes ago, been pressed directly against Chris's skin — and had now been pressed directly against hers —
That sensation. That lingering ghost of warmth, like being held at one remove. It was still sitting on her skin, refusing to leave.
For a girl who prided herself on being proper and composed, this was a level of secondhand intimacy that was frankly several years too advanced.
Don't think about it. Don't think about it! Ichinose, what is wrong with you right now?!
This was a necessary test for the team's survival! That's all it was! A TEST!
Faced with her squirming, thoroughly flustered expression, Chris glanced away.
He wasn't teasing her on purpose. He just happened to have eyes.
If he was being objective about it — Ichinose Honami was genuinely, almost alarmingly easy to trust people.
Hardly a week into the school year, and a few well-placed nudges had been enough to get her pouring out her darkest secrets to Nagumo Miyabi of all people.
That was a level of innocence that bordered on dangerous.
Though, to be fair...
The reason she was trusting him so completely and without reservation right now — that was probably less about her natural openness, and more about the fact that they'd been in close proximity so many times now that a little of his particular shade of trouble had rubbed off on her. Unavoidable, really.
Not my fault. Can't be blamed for this one.
Who could say no to a big pink dog that wags its tail at you with those completely trusting eyes?
"Looking at the results, then..."
Kushida Kikyo's voice cut in at just the right moment.
She didn't appear to have noticed anything unusual passing between the other two. Her tone was clean and analytical.
"The combat suit should still be the top priority for everyone's first redemption, right? Even if it can't be shared — the raw physical enhancement alone makes it more than worth the points."
Ichinose snapped out of her daze in an instant, composure clicking back into place like a lock turning.
"You're right, Kushida-san."
"I'll compile the test data and post it to the group chat so everyone can mentally prepare ahead of time."
She paused, turning to look at Chris, something apologetic settling into her expression.
"The only thing is... for team coordination going forward, this might affect your earnings in the early stages, Chris-kun..."
"Don't worry about it."
Chris shrugged it off easily.
"I'm not exactly enthusiastic about fighting anyway."
"If anything — having a leader like you around who actually thinks about everyone else means I have to do a lot less myself. That's a win as far as I'm concerned."
"Honestly... if it were up to me, I'd just like to spend the next three years of high school quietly. No drama."
A quiet life.
That was the truth, and he meant it.
He hadn't come here to blow anything up. As long as no one came looking for trouble, he was perfectly happy to coast.
At those words, something lit up in Ichinose's eyes. A bright, blooming smile broke across her face, and she nodded with feeling.
"Leave it to me!"
"I promise — I'll make sure everyone makes it through this in one piece!"
Sunlight poured through the equipment room's high windows and fell across the girl's face — full of hope, shining with a conviction that made the light look like a halo.
Watching her, Kushida Kikyo's eyes narrowed — slowly, almost imperceptibly.
And in that moment, she finally understood where the vague, sourceless irritation she'd been carrying since morning had come from.
That completely unalloyed kindness. That readiness to throw everything on the line even for strangers.
Why?
Why can some people do that — for people they don't even know?
Everyone puts on a nice face. So why does yours look so effortless?
Kushida Kikyo had no answer for it.
It was the instinctive recoil of someone who lived in the dark — flinching away from a light that was simply too bright to look at directly.
——
At that same moment, in Class A's homeroom.
Sakayanagi Arisu sat in her window seat — the best in the room, as always — chin resting on one hand, gazing quietly out at the figures running and sweating freely across the schoolyard below.
That vitality. That grounded, full-bodied sense of being rooted to the earth with every step.
No matter how many times she watched it, the envy she kept deliberately buried always managed to surface — just a little. Just enough to ache.
For years, she'd sealed that longing away behind the theory that genius is always solitary, always incomplete.
But now...
Her fingertips drifted slowly across the cool surface of her desk.
Now that she knew this particular problem wasn't unsolvable — now that a solution existed — the part of her that was, at her core, a born ruler found itself instinctively reaching toward wholeness.
Toward perfection.
The emotion didn't linger on her face for long.
Weakness was only permitted to exist for an instant.
Sakayanagi Arisu pulled her gaze back in and reached for her phone.
The screen showed her recent conversation thread with her father — the school's chairman.
The news embedded between the lines was not encouraging.
The arrival of the Black Sphere trials appeared to have rattled certain people at the top. Her father still held the chairman's position, but according to him, a decision had already been made from above: a "Deputy Chairman" would be sent down to assist with the situation.
The deputy's name, apparently, was Tsukishiro.
"Ha."
A soft, quiet laugh escaped her.
Assist. What a convenient word for a power grab.
But faced with this gathering storm, Sakayanagi felt no particular anxiety. If anything, she found it mildly amusing.
In another time, her father might have had to lose some sleep over this.
Now, though?
The White Room. The Black Room. Artificially engineered geniuses.
In the face of the Black Sphere — a supernatural force operating on a completely different level — all of that amounted to nothing. Paper tigers, every last one.
She trusted her father. She trusted herself more.
As long as she was standing, her father would not lose to anyone.
Her phone buzzed.
A priority notification — one of her starred contacts.
She swiped the screen open and found that Ichinose Honami had posted a detailed combat suit evaluation report in the [Black Sphere Mutual Aid Society] group chat.
The data was thorough. The analysis was fair.
But what actually caught her eye was the note appended at the very end.
[Confirmed through testing: the combat suit is individually bound. It only activates for the person who redeemed it. Cannot be borrowed or transferred.]
Sakayanagi wasn't surprised.
Restrictions were inevitable. Of course there were restrictions.
What interested her far more was what the message implied.
She tapped out a reply:
「Ichinose-san — how exactly did you confirm this? Did you run an actual test?」
The response came back almost instantly.
Ichinose: 「Don't worry about the details! All that matters is the result, okay?! (>_<)」
The corner of Sakayanagi's mouth curved.
It seems our dear Chris-kun's particular brand of charm is... not inconsiderable.
She pocketed her phone and turned her gaze to the clock on the wall, quietly finding herself looking forward to the end of class.
If she was being honest — Sakayanagi Arisu was genuinely curious about him now.
Two trials in, and the Black Sphere's selection criteria were already starting to take shape.
The pattern was clear: each class's leader — its most capable student — was on the fixed initial roster.
For Class A, that was her. For Class B, Ichinose. For Class C, Ryuuen.
All perfectly logical.
But Class D?
On the surface, Chris had nothing going for him except his looks. His entrance exam scores had barely scraped past the passing line...
So in what way — in what specific, fundamental way — had he surpassed the White Room's greatest masterpiece from the very beginning?
____
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