After saying goodbye to Ichinose and Kushida, Chris was in a reasonably good mood.
Things hadn't gone exactly as planned — but the end result was close enough to what he'd envisioned. With Ichinose's credibility backing it up, the enthusiasm of the general student body had been successfully ignited. From here on out, this particular project no longer needed the chief deity himself to babysit it.
"So. Where to next?"
His thoughts shifted briefly as he checked today's daily item refresh.
[Invisibility Spray (Doraemon Edition)]
Chris stared at the familiar spray-can icon floating in front of him and felt his enthusiasm immediately deflate.
Objectively speaking, it was a great item.
Spray it on yourself, get four hours of invisibility — only detectable through specially crafted lenses. Solid utility. No complaints on paper.
But...
"Isn't this a bit redundant?"
After all, the GANTZ equipment catalogue already had a Controller unit with a built-in stealth function. Throwing an 「Invisibility Spray」 on top of that was doubling up on the same effect — and the Controller didn't even take up an item slot. It was essentially a freebie.
Now, if the system had rolled him a Dog Charm instead — something that would let him complete a full resistance-bond set — that would've actually been exciting.
"Whatever. Free is free."
"Can't exactly complain about a handout."
He dismissed the interface with a wave of his hand.
The phone in his pocket buzzed.
He pulled it out.
Sender: Horikita Suzune.
Message, in its entirety: 「Come to the library.」
He raised an eyebrow.
"Hoh. The model student herself is skipping class now?"
"Doesn't really fit your whole brand, Horikita."
Still thinking it over, he glanced in the direction of the sports field.
Using the X-ray vision he'd developed through the Psychic Power Training Box, his gaze cut straight through the canopy of trees without breaking a sweat.
Out on the field, the combined Class B and Class D group had already dispersed into clusters of free activity.
And Horikita Suzune — notebook tucked under one arm — was walking briskly through the connecting corridor, clearly heading toward the library.
"Not skipping. Nevermind then."
Interest: thoroughly extinguished.
He tapped back a single period — 「.」 — and called it a reply.
In Japan, leaving someone on read carried its own special brand of social pressure. People tended to spiral. Better to send something. Even if that something was a dot.
Honestly, he had zero enthusiasm for a tutoring session.
But then again.
It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Might as well treat it as running through the story content.
Dating sims worked exactly like this, didn't they? Trigger a random event, sit through a dialogue segment, pick up a few favorability points, maybe bring a gift at the right moment — then unlock a special interaction on a holiday, which unlocked more story content.
Not that he was the type who bothered with the dialogue. He was firmly in the skip-to-the-CG camp.
...
A few minutes later. The library.
Since it was still class hours, the place was practically deserted.
The silence was deep enough that you could hear the air conditioning humming and the faint, papery whisper of pages turning.
Chris stepped into the reading area and spotted her immediately — Horikita Suzune, alone in the corner by the window, bent over the table and writing at speed.
Without ceremony, he pulled out the chair across from her and sat down.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?"
He propped his chin on one hand.
Horikita Suzune's pen paused mid-stroke.
She looked up, gave him a brief once-over, then turned her notebook around and slid it across the table toward him.
"These are the key teaching points from each subject over the past period."
"Look through it. Tell me if you can follow it."
Chris skimmed it.
The handwriting was neat and precise, the important sections clearly marked, and even the easily confused concepts had been color-coded with different pens.
As far as notes went, it was genuinely thorough work.
"If you can follow it," Horikita continued, "I'll use this as a basis to draw up a detailed study plan — for you, and for the students at the bottom of the class rankings."
She folded her arms across her chest and held his gaze directly.
Those dark violet eyes were still and clear, like ink that hadn't yet bloomed in water — sharp, clean, and somehow colder for it.
The only problem was...
Chris didn't need any of this.
Eat one Memory Bread, chase it with a couple of NZT-48 pills, and there wasn't an exam in existence he couldn't demolish.
The reason his grades at enrollment had been mediocre in the first place was entirely because the background character he'd replaced had mediocre grades. Not his scores. Not his performance.
How was that his fault?
You're blaming the wrong person here.
"What's wrong? Can't make sense of it?"
His silence had apparently spoken for itself. Horikita's brow arched, and her tone shifted into something resigned:
"It's alright — you can ask me wherever you're confused. I promised to help, and I don't go back on my word."
"Hold on, hold on."
Chris swallowed the dozen sarcastic responses rising in his throat and cut her off with a raised hand:
"The notes are fine. The logic is clear."
"But Horikita — have you considered something?"
"The reason people don't study isn't always because they can't keep up, or because the material doesn't make sense."
"Sometimes they just genuinely... don't want to."
"If you feed a pig a five-star imperial banquet, it won't thank you. It'll just wonder why you didn't bring slop instead."
"Rather than wasting your time on this kind of thing — you'd be better off giving them a reason they can't ignore. Or..."
He leaned back slightly.
"...a shortcut."
Horikita Suzune frowned, clearly working through the logic of what he'd just said.
"A shortcut? There's no such thing as a shortcut in studying."
"Sure there is."
Chris smiled — slow, meaningful, the kind that implied he already knew the answer to a question she hadn't thought to ask.
"Doesn't this school's motto go something like 'supremacy of ability'?"
"Well then — 'ability' isn't just academic performance, is it? It also shows up in how well you can acquire information."
"Since the whole point is to prepare for the midterms..."
He dropped his voice, coaxing and deliberate:
"Why not look into buying last year's midterm questions from an upperclassman?"
"Buying exam questions?"
Horikita Suzune blinked. Just slightly.
Sure, the method was a little underhanded — you could even call it cheating, depending on who you asked. But using every available resource within the bounds of the rules...
That was, in fact, exactly how this school operated.
She was quiet for a moment. Then she picked up her pen and jotted it down in the blank margin of her notebook.
"I'll look into it."
With the practical business out of the way, Horikita Suzune showed no particular sign of letting him leave.
She closed the notebook, hesitated briefly, then spoke.
"One more thing."
"According to what Ichinose posted in the group chat — the threat you faced in the first trial was... Parasytes, correct?"
"Mm," Chris replied.
"Then you'll remember the Black Sphere's description of them. On the outside they look completely human — perfect disguise, decent intelligence, functional reasoning, but emotionally... hollow."
"So," said Chris, eyebrow lifting. "What are you getting at?"
"I suspect," Horikita Suzune said, voice firm with quiet certainty, "that there is a Parasyte already inside our class."
Chris blinked.
One face immediately surfaced in his mind.
Wait... could she actually mean—
"You're not talking about Ayanokoji, are you?"
"Correct."
Horikita pressed on:
"Don't you think his outward presentation matches the Parasyte profile almost perfectly? The same vacant expression. No visible emotional reactions..."
Chris barely managed to keep a straight face.
He covered it with two carefully timed coughs.
"...Could be," he said, with admirable restraint.
"But even if he were a Parasyte — until the Black Sphere actually issues a mission and designates him as a target, there's nothing we can do about it, is there?"
Horikita Suzune gave a slow, reluctant nod, brow still furrowed:
"That is the problem, yes."
Looking at that impeccably serious expression on her face, Chris pressed his lips together firmly.
If he stayed one more minute, he was going to crack.
"Alright. Good luck with that."
"I've got things to do. I'm heading out."
...
The moment he stepped out of the library, Chris finally let himself breathe.
This visit had not been a waste after all — at minimum, it had given him a solid laugh.
Though honestly, Horikita's logic wasn't completely off base. The conclusion was spectacularly wrong, but she wasn't wrong to notice that Ayanokoji shared a certain quality with the Parasytes — that particular flavor of being deeply, unnervingly not-quite-human.
As he idly turned over where to find his next source of entertainment—
Tap. Tap.
The clean, measured sound of a cane striking the floor, drawing closer.
Chris looked up.
At the far end of the corridor, Sakayanagi Arisu was making her way toward him — cane in hand, steps unhurried and perfectly composed.
Walking beside her was a blue-haired girl with a serene, quiet presence, carrying a stack of books.
Shiina Hiyori?
How did those two end up together? Did I skip a cutscene?
He was still working through that question when Sakayanagi Arisu stopped in front of him, a perfectly calibrated look of delighted surprise spreading across her face.
"Oh my — if it isn't Chris-kun~"
"Running into you here of all places... it must be fate, don't you think?"
Chris: "..."
"I might have believed that if you'd put your phone away first."
Sakayanagi acted as though she hadn't heard a word of it. She turned to Shiina Hiyori with a pleasant smile.
"Shiina-san."
"I've found the person I was looking for, so I won't keep you any longer."
Shiina Hiyori glanced between the two of them, clearly sensing that something was going on — but politely let it go with a small nod.
"It's no trouble. I was heading to the library to return these anyway."
She dipped her head once toward Chris, then slipped past them both and disappeared through the library doors.
Once her figure had vanished from sight, Chris turned back to Sakayanagi Arisu — who was watching him with barely concealed amusement.
"You're pretty good at playing the helpless card."
"Hehe~"
Sakayanagi gave a soft, entirely unapologetic little sound — and not only failed to deny it, but actually stepped forward and wrapped her hand around his, brazen and unhurried.
"That might be true for other people. But not for you."
"Because..."
She gave her cane a small, deliberate wave.
"You still owe me thirty minutes of work that never got paid out~"
"Ours is a pure, clean, strictly transactional relationship."
Chris let out a weary sigh. "I can just pay you back the 2,500 points, you know."
"That won't do at all."
Sakayanagi tightened her fingers — just slightly — savoring the warmth of his palm against hers. Her eyes curved with quiet, private pleasure.
"Once I've given something away..."
"There has never been any reason to take it back."
____
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