"I'm going to say something..."
"You didn't come looking for me just over something this trivial, did you?"
Faced with Sakayanagi Arisu's self-satisfied smile, Chris wasn't about to play along.
"There's no Black Sphere exam right now, and while your legs aren't exactly in great shape, it's not like you can't take two steps without Kamuro Masumi propping you up."
"As for points..."
"I'd imagine a few thousand isn't exactly going to break the bank for you."
"My, my. Chris-kun is simultaneously sharp and completely oblivious, isn't he?"
"You're not wrong, though."
Sakayanagi Arisu gave a small shake of her head.
"But thanks to the Black Sphere, Kamuro-san now looks at me like I'm some kind of natural disaster. She'd sooner take a ten-minute detour than walk past me."
"Honestly, I don't even know whether to call her naive or just... something else entirely..."
"And if a surprise exam suddenly crops up in the middle of all this —"
The girl blinked those pale violet eyes, her tone going quietly plaintive.
"In a situation where I'm completely on my own — who else can I possibly rely on but you, Chris-kun?"
Chris didn't buy the half-true, half-manufactured flattery for a second.
Nor did he bother asking why she hadn't simply gone to Ichinose Honami — who would have been constitutionally incapable of saying no.
Instead, he replied offhandedly:
"If Ichinose's guess is right, every future exam is going to have a random draft slot."
"Kamuro Masumi will come to terms with reality eventually. And when she does, you won't need me anymore."
"Hehe~"
Sakayanagi smiled — small, private, amused.
"So what you're saying is... until that day comes, you'd be willing to serve as my personal crutch?"
"I never said that. Stop writing your own script."
Chris raised a hand in a firm cut-it-out gesture.
"My rates are steep. You couldn't afford me."
"Oh?"
Sakayanagi tilted her head as though she'd just heard the setup to a very good joke.
"Now I'm genuinely curious."
"What kind of price tag would make you think I 'couldn't afford' it?"
Chris considered it for a moment. "My time is worth millions by the minute."
"Even at a modest rate, we're talking ten million points an hour minimum."
"..."
Sakayanagi blinked — once — and then went silent.
Ten million points.
Even for a Class A student, accumulating that over three full years was questionable at best. It was an absurd number invented specifically to say no.
She gave him a light nudge with her elbow — right in the side — and gave him a look of mock reproach.
"Chris-kun really does have a gift for comedy."
But Chris had actually been serious.
Ten million to bribe a god? That's the deal of the century, honestly.
You're only getting this offer because you're easy on the eyes. Anyone else wouldn't even get a number quoted at them.
The two of them fell into an odd, comfortable silence and kept walking.
Sakayanagi had her arm looped through his, but she wasn't pressing any closer than that. Her body weight still leaned primarily on her cane — each step careful, measured, unhurried.
That picture of fragile, boneless delicacy. As if Chris's "astronomical" quote had genuinely frightened her into keeping to surface contact only — a butterfly landing on a branch, afraid to commit to a full perch.
And Chris didn't shake her off either.
The path Sakayanagi had chosen was quiet — a seldom-used stretch of campus where foot traffic was almost nonexistent. She was, evidently, someone who understood the value of discretion.
Then again, she seemed to genuinely enjoy this — the all-flirt-no-follow-through dynamic. A game of push and pull played entirely at arm's length.
With a body that could give out at any moment, and no cure on the horizon, bold moves weren't really in the cards. Sharp words and careful inches were the most she could get away with.
Chris found himself in quiet agreement with that assessment.
— Right up until they rounded a shadowed corner at the back of one of the school buildings.
"...Is there really no other way?"
A girl's voice — tightly controlled, barely keeping something larger at bay — drifted toward them on the wind.
Then, colder, more clipped:
"I told you. Don't do anything unnecessary."
Sakayanagi's step faltered.
Rather than calling out, she tapped Chris's shoe lightly with the tip of her cane.
"Hey, Chris-kun."
"Eavesdropping is rude, of course... but it seems like we've stumbled onto something rather interesting, don't you think?"
Chris glanced over at the girl who had very deliberately lightened her footsteps — and was now actively pulling him sideways into the shadow of the building.
"If you think eavesdropping is rude, maybe stop dragging me into it."
He sighed — but didn't pull his arm back.
As they drew closer, the voices sharpened into clarity.
"That's... Horikita-san, isn't it!"
Sakayanagi covered her mouth, visibly surprised.
"Shh. Keep it down," Chris murmured.
"Such a hypocrite."
Sakayanagi gave a quiet huff, then dropped to a barely-there whisper only the two of them could catch:
"But..."
"What am I supposed to do about the fact that I like this even more now?"
The warm breath brushed his ear — carrying just the faintest thread of deliberate mischief.
Chris chose silence.
Reasoning with women is a losing proposition. Better to just watch the show.
Though if he was being honest, he'd prefer watching women fight — hair-pulling, clothes-tearing, the whole spectacle.
The identities of the two figures around the corner weren't difficult to piece together.
One of them was Horikita Suzune — who had parted ways with Chris not long ago.
The other was the dark-haired, bespectacled young man standing with his back to them.
Horikita Manabu.
Student Council President. Human machine. A man who communicated exclusively in riddles.
Though this scene was playing out a little differently from the version Chris remembered.
This time, the weight was heavier — Class D's catastrophic zero-point starting position, compounded by the double humiliation of the Black Sphere trial. The proud girl had apparently learned, at last, that grand declarations without proof meant nothing.
So.
Horikita Suzune had come to find her brother — and a small part of that was, in its own way, Chris's doing.
She wanted two things from the Student Council President: the answer sheets from last term's midterm exams, and whatever intelligence he might have on the Black Sphere trials.
"...You want to buy exam papers?"
Horikita Manabu turned around.
He looked down at his sister — this sister who had, until now, never once bent a rule in her life.
"That's right."
Horikita Suzune bit her lip.
"I looked into it. The school has no explicit rule against upperclassmen sharing exam content with underclassmen. It falls within the permitted boundaries."
"As long as it gets results..."
"Even if this is the method I have to use — I'm willing to try it."
Horikita Manabu didn't answer right away.
He was somewhat surprised — she had actually learned to be flexible. Even so, he pushed his glasses up and let the reflection of the lenses do its work, hiding whatever was moving behind his eyes.
"I didn't expect you to learn how to cut corners."
"You should know that this will only disappoint me further."
"No, that's not what I — "
"I just... I only wanted to..."
Horikita Suzune's composure cracked. The courage she'd been holding up by sheer willpower collapsed all at once.
Horikita Manabu understood instantly.
This could not have been Horikita Suzune's own idea. Someone had been coaching her.
Someone else's hand in this?
Or...
He let the thought hang.
"If I were to bring this to a teacher. Or file a report with the school."
He stepped forward — one measured step — and the weight of his presence alone was enough to force Horikita Suzune back a half-step.
"Do you think Class D would have any chance of recovery?"
"And furthermore..."
"Have you even considered — could this itself be a violation of the rules?"
"Eh?"
Horikita Suzune's mind went blank.
Fear, shame, self-doubt — a flood of it all at once, washing over her before she could build any kind of wall.
Just as she stood there, completely at a loss, on the verge of falling apart entirely —
"My, my. Quite the strict standards, Student Council President."
The crisp tap of a cane on stone.
Sakayanagi Arisu emerged from the shadow with Chris's arm still looped through hers, unhurried as ever.
"Horikita Suzune and Horikita Manabu... I really should have connected those dots sooner."
Being caught in the middle of a private moment didn't seem to unsettle Horikita Manabu in the slightest.
He didn't bother hiding anything either.
"There's nothing surprising about it."
"She's just a disgrace of a little sister who brings me nothing but embarrassment."
"..."
Horikita Suzune stared at the ground, her nails pressing hard into her palms.
"Not entirely," said Chris.
He'd been watching quietly until now, but spoke up without particular fanfare.
"In a school that runs on ability, the method matters less than the result, doesn't it?"
"Thanks to her, Class D's ranking in yesterday's special exam ended up tied with Class A."
Horikita Manabu glanced at Chris.
"Class D?"
"That's right~"
Sakayanagi picked up the thread, all sweetness and perfectly innocent smiles.
"As one of the participants myself, I can confirm it. Horikita-san really did cooperate remarkably well with Chris-kun — together they racked up 90 points and actually matched Class A!"
Horikita Suzune heard that and felt her gaze drift, almost against her will, toward Chris and Sakayanagi.
The look in her eyes went complicated.
Shame, for having taken credit she hadn't fully earned. Something colder underneath that, too — the quiet discomfort of owing people you hadn't asked to owe.
But deep down, buried under all of it, a flicker of something tentative and small.
If things are being framed that way...
Would that be enough to change how my brother sees me? Even slightly?
Even just a little?
She needn't have hoped.
Horikita Manabu looked straight past her feelings without acknowledging them. His gaze settled on Sakayanagi for a moment.
"I remember you. First-year Class A — Sakayanagi Arisu."
"It seems... this year's cohort really is something different."
Faced with a statement that started nowhere and led nowhere, Sakayanagi simply gave an elegant nod.
"We can't help it. We're a special bunch."
Horikita Manabu turned his gaze back to his sister. The coldness in it hadn't shifted by a single degree.
"I don't believe for a moment that this 'achievement' was something you accomplished on your own merits."
"As of right now — you still haven't even identified your own weaknesses."
Horikita Suzune opened her mouth to push back — and found she had nothing.
Because he was right. She knew he was right. She had leaned on someone else's strength, and worse, had let the credit sit on her name without correcting it. Standing in front of her brother, that felt like a weight she had no way to lift.
Horikita Manabu looked at her — that expression on her face — and his disappointment was total.
"If you're able to, you should withdraw from the school."
"Right now, you don't have what it takes to survive here."
"..."
The temperature in the air dropped to something close to freezing.
Chris was already searching for some way to ease the tension.
He knew perfectly well Horikita Suzune wasn't actually going to drop out.
But if this girl — this living echo of Yukino-whoever — actually walked away from this place because of a moment like this, he was going to lose one of his better sources of entertainment in this school, and that was simply not acceptable.
Before he could get a word in —
The girl with her head down let out a muffled, stubborn sound.
"I'm not withdrawing."
Chris watched her back away — one step at a time, retreating while still facing forward, as though sheer refusal to turn around was the last wall of dignity she had left.
He couldn't help it. He nodded.
"Go get 'em. I'll be here lying flat — please carry me."
"..."
The solemn momentum Horikita Suzune had been building shattered on impact.
She turned and glared at him — hard — and when she spoke, it came out through clenched teeth.
"I won't be relying on your charity! And I'm not letting you hand me credit that isn't mine ever again!"
"I'm going to do this with my own ability!"
"Whether it's making it to Class A, surviving the Black Sphere exams, or becoming Student Council President — I'll prove it myself! To you, brother!"
And as if afraid that staying one second longer might give her the chance to take it all back, she spun on her heel and ran — head down, not looking back, not slowing down.
Horikita Manabu pushed his glasses up. His tone was unreadable.
"What a difficult sister."
Sakayanagi Arisu was grinning now — barely holding it together.
She reached over and gave Chris a light pinch, then pressed her other hand to her mouth to smother the laugh.
"Chris-kun — it rather seems like your goodwill wasn't appreciated at all."
"Being rejected so publicly — how does that feel? Surely having someone like me around, who would never refuse you, is a much better arrangement?"
Chris didn't respond to that.
Instead, he looked toward Horikita Manabu — who was already preparing to leave — and spoke.
"Student Council President — while we're on the subject, can I ask something? About the previous Black Sphere exams — how has the school managed to get through them with zero casualties up until now?"
"What gave you the impression the school has been running dangerous exams like this all along?"
With that, Horikita Manabu offered nothing further. He turned and walked away in long, unhurried strides.
Sakayanagi couldn't help being quietly amused.
After all — as someone with administrator-level access — she knew perfectly well that it was Chris who had sent Kushida Kikyo to sell intelligence to Nagumo Miyabi.
Chris glanced at her.
My clearance is above yours.
You think you know something I don't. I know that you think that. And you're quietly pleased about it.
I know you don't know that I know.
But at this particular moment, he didn't have the bandwidth to indulge that particular flavor of petty amusement.
Because.
The Black Sphere had just flagged something.
A new guest had arrived.
——End of Chapter——
P.S.: Recommendation — "Arknights: Found a Dodo-Dodo on the Way Out"
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