Liar, Liar - Volume 5 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Former Number One’s Languid Eyes

Tuesday, a couple days after the end of the Unique Star competition’s second quest, I was looking at my device in the living room of my manor, Himeji in her maid outfit by my side.

The story so far was that Saionji had won against me in Mano’s quest and I’d won in Asamiya’s, so we were tied 1–1. The next quest would decide who the purple star would be awarded to, so it was with some trepidation that I had been waiting for our orders to get posted.

Right now, I wasn’t sure why I’d bothered.

“…What’s up with this?” I couldn’t help muttering out loud.

The reason for my surprise was, of course, because I was reading the details for the final quest that had just been posted in the DearScript app. It was something very different in nature from what had come before…or, really, something that made zero sense at all.

Here was the summary:

Unique Star Competition – Final Quest

Client: Shizuku Minami Assigned to: Both players

Quest: “I’m way too popular, and it’s causing me trouble. Do something!”

Victory Conditions (both players): Fully complete Shizuku Minami’s request.

That was it.

“Well.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’ve got a few questions about this, but let’s cover every piece of info we know, one by one.”

Himeji’s hair shifted a bit as she nodded. “Right,” she said in her clear voice. “First, the client. Ms. Shizuku Minami is a second-year student at St. Rosalia Girls’ Institute in the Fourteenth Ward. She was selected to compete in ASTRAL during the May Interschool Competition, so I think you’ve had at least some interaction with her.”

“Right, yeah. I only ran into her in the final battle, though, so I don’t really recall talking to her. She seemed like this really chill, almost cynical girl.”

“Yes, I had the same impression of her. At the start of ASTRAL, Ms. Minami was a Four Star in possession of one Unique Star, but since St. Rosalia finished in sixth place overall, she was forced to give up that color star. Now she’s a regular Three Star.”

“Hmm… Now that I think about it, what happened to that Unique Star? Enomoto didn’t mention anything to me, so I guess it didn’t make it to Eimei.”

We pondered over that for a little while. Minami’s Unique Star would’ve been distributed to one of the top five finishers in ASTRAL—Eimei, Ohga, Tsuyuri, Otowa, or Shinra—but I never did hear how that turned out. Just thinking about it by myself wouldn’t provide any answers, though, so I decided to ask the provost about it later.

Back to Shizuku Minami.

“In terms of other information on her… She did possess a Unique Star once, but looking at the data, she’s never been an exceptional performer. She wins around two Games out of ten against higher-ranked players and seven out of ten against lower-ranked ones. That’s pretty much the average for Three Stars.”

“Yeah? Well, Unique Stars are rare, but you might still blunder into one, after all. I got my red star almost completely by accident, too.”

If a Unique Star holder loses in a Game, they must give up their Unique Star first. That’s a fundamental rule, and as a result, those stars definitely aren’t the exclusive domain of the top-ranked players. The tough part is keeping one; Minami, after all, lost hers a scant few weeks after earning it.

“That’s nearly all we know about her, it looks like… So what about the quest?”

I put my right hand behind my head as I looked down at the DearScript app. “I’m way too popular, and it’s causing me trouble. Do something!” …I guess that sounded like a reasonable enough request. Looking back, Mano wanted to confess her love to Fujishiro, while Asamiya hoped to get closer to Enomoto. This was kind of the opposite, but I guess Minami wasn’t asking for anything that different.

The main problem was the extremely vague victory conditions: “Fully complete Shizuku Minami’s request.” The exact conditions were written out in precise detail up until now, but this wasn’t any help at all. I had no idea what to do.

Even the attached video message was a head-scratcher.

“My request? …Well, it’s just what I wrote. I’ve been attracting people like crazy these days… Too many guys are trying to get my attention. Like, sometimes I even have a line of men waiting to confess their love to me… Okay, not really. I might’ve exaggerated a little there. But anyway, this is nothing but a pain… I don’t mind girls, but nothing about attracting guys makes me happy at all. So do something about it, please.”

That was where Minami had stopped recording. This video, too, gave us almost no additional information.

“If I had to guess…”

Himeji had suddenly spoken up in that calm voice of hers, clear blue eyes looking at the screen. Her silver hair swayed gently as she shifted her gaze to me.

“…it’s also our job to figure out exactly what the intent is behind this quest. We have to nail down the nature of Ms. Minami’s request, then fully solve it for her. And if you and Rina have the same victory conditions, I suppose that means whoever completes them first wins.”

“I see… Well, I guess we’ll have to make her talk to us more first.”

“I suppose we will, yes.”

Himeji nodded at me as I put my hand to my lips… The final quest of the Unique Star competition required us to help out Shizuku Minami with her romantic problems. Those problems were different from the ones we’d handled before, which was admittedly throwing me a bit, but either way, this was our last battle. Beat it, and I’d not only obtain the purple star but also find the gamemaster of DearScript—the person I had been looking for.

…I’m almost there.

I braced myself for what was to come.

After school the next day, Himeji and I took a trip over to the front gate of Minami’s school—St. Rosalia Girls’ Institute, in the Fourteenth Ward.

St. Rosalia was one of the few girls-only institutions on the island. It placed eighteenth in last year’s school rankings, and apparently it had more of a peaceful, laid-back feel than most schools. It didn’t really seem like competition was in their blood, and getting admitted there was less about talent and more about bloodlines and family status. Basically, it was a school for rich girls.

The school was built on a large stretch of land near the center of the Fourteenth Ward, and the campus was off-limits to students from other wards—or, to be more exact, male students from other wards. If a guy wanted to get in, he had to be a blood relative of an enrolled student, he needed to have a proper appointment, and he needed a chaperone with him at all times. Most of the student body lived in dorms on campus grounds, too, which is why all the boys on the island dreamed of getting close to a girl from St. Rosalia.

But enough idle gossip.

“…You’re Ms. Shizuku Minami, correct? Could we have a little of your time?”

Around half an hour after we began staking out the main gate, Himeji took a step forward, blocking the way of a girl walking down the path, who gave her a dirty look.

“…What?”

If you had just one word to describe Shizuku Minami, languid was probably the most suitable one. She wore a white hat plunked on top of blue hair cut off squarely at the shoulders, which complemented her sleepy eyes and quiet manner of speaking. She was a little shorter than average for her age, and while she didn’t seem completely antisocial or anything like that, she also didn’t stand out from the crowd at all.

“…”

Either way, our sudden presence did nothing to improve her mood as she looked at us. According to Kagaya’s research, Minami always visited either the nearby convenience store or bookstore after school, so I’m sure she was irritated by having her routine interrupted. But instead of reacting to that, I looked back at her sleepy eyes.

“Listen, Minami, I wanted to ask you something.”

“What, not even a hello? …Weirdo. And why do you know my name? You a stalker?”

“We’ve met before. We had this exact conversation in ASTRAL, actually.”

“Did we…? I’m dealing with heartbreak right now, okay? I stopped because this cute maid spoke to me, but then you showed up. You tricked me.”

“Okay, I’m sorry about that. But you’ll at least hear me out, won’t you?”

“…You don’t think maybe you have the wrong person?”

“It’s a bit too late to try and throw me off with that gambit, you know.”

She seemed unenthusiastic but was also being unexpectedly obstinate toward me. I shook my head a little and sighed. Clearly, I was going to get nowhere with her like this…so I decided to force the conversation along.

“So…right. Let’s start at the beginning. My name’s Hiroto Shinohara, and I’m not approaching you because I’m a stalker or thinking you’re someone else or whatever. It’s because of the request you sent to Meetia. You didn’t forget about that, did you?”

“You’re not even listening to me… Haaah…”

The moment I tried bringing up the quest, Minami let out an annoyed sigh. She brought her face up, brushing her blue hair back…and finally seemed to realize what was going on around her. Her shoulders twitched.

“A-are people watching me…?”

They were. To be honest, the sight of the strongest player in the Academy and his silver-haired maid waiting at the school gate had attracted a small crowd even before Minami showed up. They were listening in on our conversation, curious about every word and wondering where this was going. Himeji and I were used to this by now, but I’m sure it couldn’t have been more uncomfortable for Minami.

She seemed to waver for a little bit, but then she sighed, resigned to her fate.

“…Come over here.”

Spinning around, she began to walk away, guiding us.

“…Let me say just one thing first.”

Himeji and I had been taken to a back alley a couple of turns away from the main street. It was situated behind a row of houses, and not a lot of light made it in, but being this close to the school, it was still kept spotlessly clean. Once we’d arrived, Minami turned around and began talking.

“I just… I wish you’d stop that. You’re really famous… Just talking to you makes me stand out. I hate standing out.”

“Hm? Oh, right. Sorry about that.”

“…You didn’t even mean it, either… You’re the worst…”

“No, no, I regret it, okay? We’ll keep it to private places from now on. So…”

I shrugged a bit, hearing Minami blame me for all her problems, then took out the device in my pocket. I grinned and took a step toward her.

“Like I said earlier, I’m here to tackle this quest.” I showed her my DearScript screen. “‘I’m way too popular, and it’s causing me trouble. Do something!’ …You’re the client, right?”

“…Yeah.” She nodded, her long bangs overlapping her sleepy eyes. “Lately, I’ve been way too popular…like I got the invincibility star in a video game. I’m sure your heart is melting over me, too…and now we’re in this back alley, I bet you can’t stop thinking about all the things you wanna do to me…”

“…Are you, Master?”

“No, Himeji, I’m not. And my heart isn’t melting, either.”

I did think she was cute, but that was about all I’d felt for her so far… But enough about that.

“So about this request, Minami… Can you give us a bit more information, maybe? Like who’s doing what to you, and what you want done about it? I can’t solve the problem if I don’t have a grasp of that.”

“Um…I don’t wanna talk about it much. Like I said, you’re famous… Just being involved with you will turn it into this big thing. I don’t want you prying too much.”

“Well, then we won’t make it a big thing, okay? Don’t worry. Just because I’m a Seven Star doesn’t mean I have paparazzi all over me twenty-four hours a day. I can easily handle this in a way that won’t inconvenience you.”

“…You’re weirdly stubborn…”

I held my ground against Minami, no matter how ready she was to turn me down. Finally, she let out a deep, resigned sigh. Reaching into her bag, she removed her device and started tapping on it. Then, on a small screen she projected in the air, she displayed the list of calls she’d received on her device. The topmost one was from a name I recognized.

“…Kanade Yuikawa?”

“Yeah… From the Ibara School. The really strong guy from ASTRAL. He’s being so pushy with me…like, to the point where it feels dangerous. So stop him for me.”

The words came from Minami in dribs and drabs, given out with her usual unenthusiastic tone. It sounded like a surprisingly honest request, considering the way she’d been acting up till now. Kanade Yuikawa, the ace from the Fifteenth Ward’s Ibara School, was a man who’d struck me as handsome and attractive at first, but the attitude he’d showed during MTCG had sure changed my opinion of him.

But I don’t think he and Minami had any contact during ASTRAL, right? Either way, he acts all nice at first, but it never lasts.

The more I thought about this, the more questions I had…but, well, if I had some new info, I may as well act on it. I couldn’t just sit around forever.

So…

“…All right. We’ll take care of Yuikawa right away, so you just sit back and wait for us to get in touch.”

“Oh… Okay. I will.”

Minami immediately glanced away, and Himeji and I left the alley behind us.

“…Look, what’s going on here, Minami?”

It was evening one day later, and I was sitting on the sofa in my living room, admonishing the client through my device. Shizuku Minami was on the other end, and we weren’t on video chat, but I could sense the surprise in her voice.

“Oh… You. The stalker… Why do you know my ID?”

“Because you gave it to me yesterday. And I’m not a stalker.” I sighed. “Can you stop feeding me a bunch of lies with a straight face? I contacted Yuikawa, and he didn’t know anything about you.”

That was the truth. I’d had the Company use their information network to poke around Yuikawa, but they hadn’t found a single thing linking him to Minami at all. That message he’d sent her had apparently just been an innocent question, asking if she knew who received her Unique Star.

“I tried browbeating him and asking him some leading questions just in case, but he still had no idea what I was talking about. He said he’s still trying to rebuild his rep after that MTCG fiasco, so he wasn’t about to make blind passes at girls like that.”

“…Hmm… You sure found out quick…”

Minami sounded a bit regretful after that one-two punch I gave her…but I guess that meant she’d known what she was doing when she lied to me. This wasn’t a case of mistaken identity or whatever. She was clearly giving me a false story.

“Ugh… If you sent that request, why are you hiding the truth about it? You want me to do something for you, right?”

“Mm…Well, yeah, but… I mean, I asked Meetia for help, not you. I didn’t know somebody so famous would be sent in instead… And I don’t have a single reason to trust you, either.”

“…You can’t trust me?”

“Yeah. If you swear you’ll solve this problem for me, then fine…but if you can’t, all it’ll do is make me stick out more. That’d be the worst…so I don’t want to tell you what it is. I’m, like, the opposite of an attention seeker… An attention avoider. It’s a new trend.”

“I don’t think it is, really… But is this the line you’re giving Saionji too?”

“Saionji? You mean the Empress? Yeah, it is… She’s cute, at least, so she’s a hundred times better than you, but I still don’t trust her yet. So…yeah.” Her voice went down to a whisper. “Don’t bother me any longer.”

Then she ended the call.

I looked up at the ceiling, listening to the lonely dial tone. Himeji, who had come in at some point, placed a cup of tea in front of me.

“Here you go, Master… Not going well, I take it?”

“Thanks, Himeji. And…no, she’s being completely unapproachable. I mean, she fed me that story about Yuikawa to throw me off the case, so it goes without saying that she’s got zero interest in giving me anything useful.”

“I see. She’s very headstrong. But I guess there’s no helping that.”

I gave Himeji a confused look. She responded by brushing her hair back and taking out her device.

“I was wondering why Ms. Minami fears attention so much, so I asked Ms. Kagaya to examine her backstory in further depth for me. I just received the findings.”

“Oh, you were doing that for me? …Hang on, didn’t we look into her before and not find anything unusual?”

“That’s correct, Master. At least not in her high school history, we didn’t.”

Himeji stopped talking for a moment, a gloved finger tracing its way along her screen as she brought up a text file. She suggested I read it from the top, and I did.

The content was…well, to be frank, astonishing. As Himeji implied, Shizuku Minami had been a perfectly average student in her high school years, but it’s what came before that mattered. She had come to the Academy after graduating middle school, but apparently the school she had been attending was a rather unique one—a combined middle and high school, one of the few in Japan that employed a ranking setup modeled after the Academy’s star system. It was simpler than the one on the island, but the school still managed to put up good results, and it seemed like a lot of their grads were future elites of society.

In the Games played over there, Minami had an undefeated record. From the first day of middle school until her graduation, she didn’t lose even once, which would make her kind of like the Empress here on the Academy, I suppose. No one had ever done this before in the school’s history, and it made all the other students idolize her. That’s how strong Shizuku Minami was, and everyone assumed she’d continue her domination in her high school years as well. However…

“The moment she finished middle school there, she abruptly quit and moved to the Academy. She didn’t make use of her skills to apply for a high-end school, though, but opted for St. Rosalia, on the lower end of the school ranking…”

I slowly read it out loud, having trouble hiding my surprise. Despite the flawless, dominating record she put up at her old school, Shizuku Minami had simply left it all behind. Transferring over to somewhere in the Academy was a pretty natural route for the top student of a middle school to take in their education, but Minami’s school of choice had been St. Rosalia, which didn’t place much importance on Games at all. That made no sense—and what’s more, after she moved to the Academy, Minami’s Game performance plummeted. She was like a whole other player, really. You never would’ve guessed she’d gone unbeaten in middle school.

“It’s quite baffling,” Himeji said in her soothing voice as she projected another screen showing Minami’s Game statistics. “But if we’re presented with this much information, I think the picture is becoming clearer now. It seems very likely that all this is on purpose. Her past history suggests as much; sometimes she loses to players well below her in ability, while other times she trounces top-ranked students. Thanks to that performance, Ms. Minami’s been stuck at the Three to Four Star range, and I can only surmise that’s exactly what she’s aiming for.”

“Hmm… You figure she’s doing it because she doesn’t want to stand out? She was a celebrity all during middle school, which put a lot of pressure on her, and she moved to the island because she got sick of it. Given her past, maybe she wants to keep as low a profile as she can over here.”

Himeji nodded at me. “I do believe that’s what we see here, yes.”

…Yeah, that would make sense. If so, she had a perfectly valid reason for wanting me and Saionji to stay out of her life. But that didn’t mean I could just say “Oh, okay, sorry about that” and give up. I was tied 1–1 with Saionji in the Unique Star competition. If she got ahead of me, all the hard work I’d put in so far would be for nothing.

“So the next question is how to get her to open up to us…but that probably won’t happen until we can win her trust, I don’t think. If we can convince her that there’s a higher chance of us solving her problem than there is risk of her standing out, then maybe she’ll explain what’s actually going on.”

“I think that’s quite possible,” agreed Himeji. “She’s already reached out with her request, so I’m certain Ms. Minami wants something to be done for her.”

To sum up, the key to this final quest in the Unique Star competition wasn’t the nature of Shizuku Minami’s request so much as simply winning her trust. We needed to convince her that her mission was in good hands with us.

“But if we think about it like that, Master, I have to say that Rina might have a slight advantage. As a woman, she has the right to freely travel around the St. Rosalia campus, and her looks would likely help build a rapport with Ms. Minami sooner as well. I’m sure she’s already contacted Ms. Minami a number of times by now.”

“No doubt. So we’re gonna have to play catch-up… I mean, if this job’s about being too popular, I suppose it’s nothing all that particularly urgent or anything, though… Hmm?”

I had noticed my device vibrating slightly on the table, and I reflexively picked it up. There was a notification from DearScript. I opened it, as nervous as I always was whenever this happened, and a New Objective Unlocked! popup was front and center.

Order: After school tomorrow, follow Shizuku Minami to a certain location and participate in the simulated Game she will hold there. Win, and you will earn Shizuku Minami’s trust. If you lose, or if she spots you following her before you discover her destination, you will fail the order.

““…””

Himeji and I exchanged glances at this almost-too-timely piece of info. What was the deal here? It was such a specific order that I began to wonder if there was a secret microphone somewhere in the room, and the feeling that it had perfectly anticipated our conversation was a little frightening.

What’s more…

“I still don’t really understand exactly what it’s getting at. Maybe I see the point of tailing her, but how does that connect to a Game? And just winning that will make her trust me…?”

“It’s a riddle, certainly,” murmured Himeji. “I feel like following her would make her even warier of us, though.”

We put our heads together over it for a little while longer, but we were clueless about what the order meant. Regardless, what we thought about it didn’t matter, technically. Whether we understood them or not, DearScript’s orders were absolute. There was no room to question or agonize over them.

“Ugh…”

So I decided to summon the Company and formulate a strategy for tomorrow.

The main trick to tailing someone is to make sure your target isn’t on the lookout for you. If they think someone might be shadowing them, that alone greatly ups the risk. After all, if you’re following someone, you don’t really know what their destination is, so you have to stick fairly close to them or you’ll lose your target. But if you try that and they look over their shoulder and see you, the chase is pretty much lost right there and then, too.

So we decided to take a more innovative approach.

“…Ms. Minami just turned the corner of the building, Master. She’s walking at a normal pace; her suspicion level’s still at 0 percent. Continue to slowly track her.”

“Roger.”

Following Himeji’s voice in my right ear, I started walking again.

My target was Shizuku Minami, but I didn’t have her anywhere in my sights. I did have a simple map on my device, though, that gave me Minami’s location at all times. I was also receiving surveillance photos of her on a regular basis, presumably from hacked security cameras of stores and stuff. I had all that information, plus the latest updates transmitted through my earpiece.

This was the method I’d chosen to stalk Minami—real Company-style tracking, as Kagaya had put it. It completely eliminated the risk of revealing myself (the biggest threat to any job like this) at the cost of breaking any laws necessary to keep constant tabs on the target’s location—a brute-force approach to the problem. If I wanted to be doubly safe, I could probably stand to be even farther away from her, but then I ran the risk of breaking my DearScript orders, so I’d compromised on that a bit.

No way she’ll realize anything’s up now…but this is kind of criminal, isn’t it?

I sighed lightly as I looked at the hidden footage on my device. No “kind of” about it—this was criminal. We were using all this illegal tech to track a student at St. Rosalia—a gentle, law-abiding, and fairly good-looking girl—and that did nothing to calm my pulse.

“Whew…”

“Ms. Minami is entering the roundabout. I think she’s going to board a train… Master, your breathing’s sounding a bit heavy at the moment. Is this situation exciting you?”

“No…”

I instantly denied Himeji’s pointed observation. Yes, my heart was beating fast, but this wasn’t a fetish of mine or anything.

A train, huh…? Where’s she planning to go?

I followed in Minami’s footsteps, raising an eyebrow at my device. Company-driven research told me that she mostly stayed on school grounds, except for her trips to the convenience store and bookshop. She wasn’t the type to go on longer trips at all.

“She might just be going to see a friend or lover…but no. Given the timing, she must be going out for some business with Saionji.”

“Right. It makes sense if Rina’s received some sort of new order herself, likely involving a Game at the spot they’ll meet. For now, though, we have no idea what this Game might be… You may want to hurry just a little bit, Master. Ms. Minami is through the station gate, but the next train is coming in two minutes.”

“Got it. Thanks, Himeji.”

I had a few concerns, but right now, my new order was job number one. Ending my conversation with Himeji, I briskly walked toward the station, taking a different stairway than Minami to reach the platform and exercising maximum caution as I slipped into the arriving train.

“Right…”

Inside the train car, I examined my surroundings. At a time like this, after school had been let out, trains would normally be packed with students returning to their dorms or going out for some fun, but that didn’t seem to be the case for St. Rosalia. Apart from me, there were just a few girls wearing the same uniform as Minami.

“Good job, Master. You can probably relax for now.”

Himeji’s soft encouragement reached my earpiece. Having my stalking behavior praised by another high schooler (and a maid, no less) was pretty nonsensical if you gave it some rational thought, but like Himeji suggested, pursuing someone took a lot out of you mentally. You had to be on your toes at all times, which made the seconds and minutes seem to drag on forever.

After a few minutes of relaxing in my seat as the train bounced up and down:

“…Get ready, Master. It looks like she’s getting off at the next stop.”

She’d be doing so in the center of the Fifth Ward. That’s about as big as the Fourth Ward, so it’d be bustling with students during these after-school hours.

Minami worked her way through the crowds, eventually getting sucked into a small building near the station. The sign at the top featured the logo for a karaoke chain found everywhere in the country. This must be her destination.

“Hmm…”

I no longer had to fear being discovered, so I breathed a sigh of relief as I went inside. Minami, her uniformed back turned to me, was waiting in line at the front desk.

“Good afternoon! Are you by yourself, or are you waiting for someone?”

“Waiting… Also, I have a reservation for Minami…”

“Ah, yes… Shizuku Minami, party of three for two hours, correct? One other member of your party is already here, so feel free to grab the mics and go to your room!”

“…Huh?”

Minami looked up a bit. “Three?” she asked, puzzled. “No, I think it was two…”

“It’s three, trust me.”

I talked over Minami from behind. She shivered a bit, then turned around, scowling the moment she recognized me.

“…Why are you here?”

“Why? So I could join this Game or whatever you have planned. Why else? I got added to the reservation, too.”

“I didn’t know about this… I didn’t invite you. And now you’re forcing a girl into a private karaoke room…? You really are after my body, aren’t you? And you’re making it a three-way, too…?”

“What are you talking about?”

These accusations amazed me, but I reached out and took a basket of microphones from the front-desk clerk. The DearScript gamemaster must’ve changed the reservation that Minami had made. The clerk didn’t seem to think anything was amiss anyway.

Then…

“Come on, Minami, won’t you stick out too much if you stay here in the lobby? Let’s get going.”

“…Ugh… You and your smooth talk…”

Minami complained about it under her breath, but she must’ve eventually given up because she quietly said, “All right,” and followed me.

When we arrived at room 502, we found someone waiting for us.

“There you are, Shizuku…and Shinohara, too.”

Sarasa Saionji was seated on the sofa, arms crossed defiantly and a faint smile on her face as she looked at us with her ruby eyes. She must’ve known from her orders or something that I’d show up, because she didn’t seem surprised by my presence. In fact, her demeanor told me that she was already pretty friendly with Minami. I didn’t think they’d known each other much at all before, but she must’ve closed that gap a fair bit in these past two days.

There was a one-drink minimum, so we all ordered something and sat down. A long table was set diagonally against a corner of the room for us to sit around.

“…Mm…”

Minami, sitting across from me (or diagonally in front of me, I guess), glanced up after taking a sip of her iced bubble tea. Her sleepy eyes were watching me with clear suspicion.

“Let me ask you again… Why are you here? I came here because I thought I was playing a Game with the Empress…but I didn’t ask for you. I told the Empress not to tell you, too.”

“She’s right. Not telling you was part of my orders, Shinohara.”

“…Your what?”

“My orders. Basically, Shizuku, the ‘gamemaster’ that gave us your request has also given us assorted orders to follow…more or less.”

“Hmm…? I don’t really understand that…but if he’s here, then whatever. I’ll let you join in, too. Think of it as a first-time log-in pity bonus.”

“Wow. How generous of you.”

“It’d be too much a pain to kick you out now…and besides, I’m the emcee here. The person calling the shots. I could make you do anything I want to. Lick my boots, you name it.”

“…”

“…? That was a joke. You were supposed to jab back at me. You’ll lose points for that.”

“I really can’t keep up with this,” I said as Minami made some kind of attempt at a joke with her usual lethargy. But I guess she really would let me join this Game. She couldn’t have known that I’d be here, but I guess that didn’t matter much rules-wise.

“Here’s how it’ll work,” she said, shaking her head a bit as she stirred her drink with the straw. She kept her blue eyes focused on her glass as she continued.

“We are about to play a type of Game, but if we did a normal one, it’d be me against the Empress and the Seven Star, and I’d hate to have that on my record. So it’ll all be analog this time… Your job is to guess exactly what my request is.”

“Your request…? You mean about how you’re too popular and it’s bothering you?”

“Yeah. I’m cursed by my popularity… I got all these men in my life, and I hate it, but I’m not gonna tell you anything else. I don’t want to anyway. But you want to know more…which puts us at a standoff of sorts. So I’ll just make that the Game. Beat me, and you’ll automatically know the nature of my request… It’s a genius idea.”

“Y-yeah, I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” said Saionji. “But how are we supposed to guess, Shizuku? Like, we have a lot of questions—who’s coming on to you, what do you want done about it…? You’re not going to ask us to guess without any hints, are you?”

“I didn’t say that… If I did, I think you might torture me.”

“Hee-hee! You always exaggerate like that.”

“…? That wasn’t a joke. I was serious. Who knows all the horrible things you two might do to me…”

“We won’t, okay? It’s really hard to tell when you’re joking and when you’re not, you know.”

Minami honestly appeared a bit frightened, but Saionji just folded her arms over her chest, her hair swaying gently.

“Yeah…,” Minami said, sounding a bit disheartened, but she soon got over it and raised her head back up.

“We don’t have long, so I’ll keep going… You need to guess what my request is. But not without any hints… Have you heard of lateral thinking puzzles before?”

“Lateral thinking…?”

I blinked at this unfamiliar term. Saionji apparently knew what it meant, though, because she nodded, a smile unfolding on her face.

“Sure, I know about those. They’re a well-known kind of riddle.”

“Oh? Great… Okay, you explain them.”

“…Huh? Is that why you asked? Well, sure, I guess…”

It seems Minami really was that lazy. Saionji, having this job pressed upon her, sighed a bit, then her ruby eyes turned toward me.

“Well,” she began, organizing her thoughts, “a lateral thinking puzzle is kind of like a deduction game that works entirely with people talking. They’re sometimes used as the basis for Games on the Academy—the Treasure Hunt Board Game you and Akizuki played during the Fourth Ward Challenge, for example. More specifically… Actually, maybe it’s easiest if I just give you an example.”

“An example? Sure. Go easy on me.”

“Fine. Here’s the most famous one. A man walks into a seaside restaurant and orders turtle soup. The waitress brings him the soup, he tries a spoonful, and then he looks back at the waitress, confused. He asks her, ‘Is this really turtle soup?’ The waitress assures him it is, but the man pays for his meal without taking another bite and leaves the restaurant. That night, he takes his own life. Why?”

“Huh? …What d’you mean, ‘Why?’”

“Like, why did he do it? You can’t just give a reason, either. You have to give the whole story behind it.”

Saionji sounded like she was having fun with this game. She had a cheeky smile on her face, and I reluctantly fell silent. This was a famous riddle… I was pretty sure I’d heard it somewhere before, but that was about all I knew of it. I tried thinking a little, but there was no logical connection between any of the events. It made no sense to me.

“Hee-hee! Give up? It’s kind of refreshing to see you totally lost like that.”

“Oh, sure, lord it over me, Saionji. …You haven’t even begun to explain any of the rules yet, you know. With the Treasure Hunt Board Game, we had to use questions to figure out where our opponent was, so if this is a similar sort of puzzle, do you solve it the same way?”

“Huh. That’s actually pretty sharp of you, Shinohara. You’re right—in a lateral thinking puzzle, you’re allowed to ask yes-or-no questions. Anything related to the game is just fine. In the example, you could ask things like ‘Was it really a suicide?’ or ‘Was the waitress lying?’ and with every question, you come that much closer to the truth. Generally, one person asks the riddle and multiple people are trying to figure out the answer. After all, ‘lateral thinking’ means looking at things from multiple angles to make new connections… That’s why it’s hard to make a breakthrough if you do it by yourself.”

“…Okay.”

So we’re posed with a question, and we try to come up with an answer. But the question isn’t solvable as it stands, so the people trying to answer it ask questions to get the information they need. That sort of thing.

“That makes sense to me. So what’s the answer to your turtle soup example?”

“I’m not gonna tell you. Hee-hee! I hope you obsess over it, lose sleep over it…and when you read the answer and realize it makes perfect sense, curse yourself for not thinking of it. Then you’ll experience the exact same pain I have.”

“Wow, way to be helpful there,” I muttered. It’s not like I was that bothered by it…but still, maybe I’d do a little research on it later.

Regardless, with Saionji’s explanation complete, Minami took up the reins once more.

“That’s the general idea behind lateral thinking puzzles…but what we’ll be playing is a Game that adjusts those rules a little. Basically, everyone asks and answers the questions… All three of us will pose a riddle of our own, and we’ll all try to answer them. That sorta thing…”

“I see,” said Saionji. “And your question to us is what your request is, right? The truth behind your claim of being so popular it’s causing you trouble. But what about me and Shinohara?”

“I have things prepared for you… They don’t call me ‘Meticulous Minami’ for nothing.”

As she kept mumbling under her breath, Minami reached into her bag and took out two cards. They were about the size of playing cards, and each one had a cute design on one side of it.

“This is a spare pack of cards I have, where each one in the set is different… The other side is blank, and I want you both to write a name on yours. The only condition is that you have to write the name of the girl who’s most on your mind right now… That’s it. Kinda feels like a school sleepover, don’t you think?”

“The girl most on my mind right now, huh…?”

“…I see. This is indeed fascinating.”

Both Saionji and Himeji seemed bemused by this, but I didn’t really know how to react. So I directed the conversation back toward Minami.

“There’s a few things I’d like to say about this. I get that I have to write the name of the girl most on my mind, but it can be anybody’s name, right? It might be someone you’ve never met before.”

“That’s true… So let’s limit it to Academy students. I pretty much know all the girls on the island… Though if I don’t recognize them, maybe you could introduce me sometime?”

“You’re that up on everyone in the island? That’s pretty incredible,” said Saionji, sounding impressed. “But you want me to write down the girl most on my mind, too? Not just Shinohara?”

Minami nodded slightly. “Yeah. I don’t know any of the guys…”

She picked up the as-yet-untouched glass of iced tea she’d ordered with her bubble tea, then placed it right in the center of the table.

“Only the person with the iced tea has the right to ask a question… That person can give the glass to anyone they want, then ask them a single question. When asked, you have to give an honest yes-no answer. All the information you want to know will be revealed…but I’ll be using the same method to figure out the names you wrote down on your cards. And if I figure out the answer before you do, I’ll leak it out on STOC anonymously. An exclusive story… A scandal… You’re trying to expose my hidden secrets, so you need to take a little risk yourselves.”

“Risk, huh…? Well, all right.”

I knew Minami completely shunned the spotlight, but for me and Saionji, gossip about us got passed around on a daily basis, so it wasn’t any skin off our noses. Still, considering we’d never know what Minami wanted from us unless we won the Game, I had every reason to take this thing seriously. If I could get her to talk to me, and not my opponent, then that would pretty much mean curtains on DearScript.

“…Any questions…? If not, write your names down… We only have this room for two hours…”

With the rules understood, Minami gave us both black markers. I shot a glance at Saionji before taking it, and her ruby-red eyes met mine for a single instant.

We took our markers at the exact same time—and a few seconds later, we had our cards with a female student’s name written on them lying face down in front of us. It was only now that it really sank in how weirdly analog this was compared to most normal Games I’d played. If I wasn’t using my device, then of course I had no access to Abilities, and there wasn’t much room for cheating, either—a pretty stiff handicap for me.

But I still have to do it. And at least I’ve got an auxiliary brain in Himeji.

That gave me a bit of relief as I nodded lightly to myself to steady my breathing.

After an impartial dice roll, I earned the right to go first.

“Okay, I’m gonna dive right into my first question.”

I took up the glass of iced tea—the talisman I needed to ask questions—and looked toward Minami. She nodded back.

“All right… This is making me kind of nervous…like those interviews at the start of porn videos…”

“Well, don’t be. And don’t phrase it like that.”

“I’m a C-cup, by the way…”

“I didn’t ask.”

Once again, Minami was saying the most outlandish things in her trademark lethargic drawl. Resisting the urge to avert my gaze, I went into “top on the Academy” mode and asked my question.

“First, your request. You said you’re too popular and it’s causing you trouble, but is it really true that guys are giving you unwanted attention? You’re not just deluding yourself?”

“Wow, that’s really mean… I wouldn’t babble on about a bunch of nonsense like that. My request is completely the truth…”

She briskly shook her head and denied my accusation. I had my fair share of doubt about the fact that she was “too popular,” but she was forced to answer with the truth here, so apparently her request to Meetia hadn’t been fake, at least.

Minami, taking the glass from me, turned toward Saionji. “I have a question for the Empress… Did you write down the name of an Ohga student?”

“No. I have a lot of friends there, but you asked who was ‘on my mind’ the most…”

“Ah… Too bad. I kind of wish I had younger students at my school call me ‘big sis’ and stuff. It’d be so nice, almost like having family there…”

“Oh? Um, I actually have a few students like that. Over in Ohga.”

“Awesome… Amazing… Thank you.” Minami gave a satisfied nod.

“Big Sis Saionji, huh?” I murmured with a look that was almost a smirk.

“…What, Shinohara? Do you have a problem with that? Maybe this is a shock to you, but people actually admire me at my school. I wasn’t some low-down Seven Star with a bad attitude like you.”

“I’m not about to deny that, but I think we’ve both got pretty bad attitudes, Saionji. If you were really the sweet, gentle big-sister type, people wouldn’t have nicknamed you the Empress in the first place.”

“Hmph…”

Saionji tucked her arms underneath her chest, pouting and looking annoyed. Then, removing her eyes from me, she pushed the glass back toward Minami.

“Ignoring the completely oblivious man next to me for the moment, here’s my question… Shizuku, when you say you have guys haranguing you, are you talking about high school students on the Academy?”

Ahh, right…

I had to applaud her for that question. Certainly, we had been going on the assumption that this was someone the same age as her, but that wasn’t a known fact yet. For all we knew, they could be elementary school students, or even older men.

But Minami shot that down with a nod. “Yes… I’m talking about high school students on this island. And not guys that’ve been held back or anything, either… My turn next.”

She had answered in the same matter-of-fact tone as always, then turned toward me and pushed the glass my way. Her blue eyes, a shade darker than Himeji’s, were locked on to mine.

“You’re a lot easier than the Empress. You stand out a lot, and it’s easy to tell who you’re involved with… It’s your maid, isn’t it? The cute silver-haired girl that’s always with you.”

“…Ohhh?”

I heard a quiet voice filled with expectation and unironic interest in my right ear, which, of course, belonged to the maid in question. I scowled a bit as Saionji stifled a laugh, and then I shook my head.

“No. Not her.”

“…? No…? I really thought it was. Are you being unfaithful to her…?” Minami asked.

“Are you, Master?” Himeji sounded a little sulky.

“…It’s not like that,” I said somewhat apologetically.

If asked which girl was most on my mind, Shirayuki Himeji certainly would be an appropriate reply, but everybody knew that we were together almost all the time, so writing her name on the card would really make this way too easy.

Still, though, now’s about when I really want to start narrowing down the potential candidates.

I brought my hand to my lips as I thought quietly to myself. The last question confirmed to us that the people going after Minami were Academy students. Looking back at her video message, she said it was only “of late” that she had begun drawing their attention, which brought one possibility to mind.

“Okay, Minami, question… Did the people trying to win you over participate in ASTRAL?”

“…! Y-yes…you’re right. You’re surprisingly sharp.”

Minami’s eyes had opened a bit in surprise, then she’d nodded, her bangs bouncing up and down. That really did narrow it down…but it didn’t look like she was panicking much about it yet. She played with the straw in the iced tea for a bit, then turned back toward me.

“If it’s not your maid, then it’s pretty much set in stone… You wrote the Empress’s name on your card. Final answer!”

“Oh? Me? Really? Hee-hee! Aw, geez, Shinohara, that’s unusually honest of you.”

“…Huh? Why would I write that?”

“…? You run into each other a lot… Enemies or not, if you see a girl this cute every day, of course you’d be attracted to her. As they say, there’s a thin line between love and hate…”

“I don’t think that applies here, okay? Think about it, Minami. Maybe we see each other a lot, but how am I going to think of her as potential girlfriend material when we’re constantly antagonizing each other? That’s the least likely choice I’d make in the whole world.”

“It is? Surprising…”

“Hmph… Well, fine, then, Shinohara. It’s not like I care who you like.”

Saionji gave me a pointed glare, arms still crossed. I thought again how this question might have hit a little too close to home. If Minami chose it especially for me, then she was one shrewd tactician.

Regardless, it was once again my turn to ask a question. I knew now that the guys pursuing Minami had been in ASTRAL, but the real work remained to be done.

Minami was playing for the St. Rosalia team, so she didn’t have any male teammates. But by the time her side played ours, she was already working for the Chameleon, so…

I attempted to retrace my memories of the event. Toward the end of ASTRAL, Shizuku Minami had stood before us in a team with two other players—both from schools other than St. Rosalia. One was Seiran Kugasaki, the Phoenix—a Five Star from the Otowa School in the Eighth Ward. The other was Toya Kirigaya, the Demigod Dictator—a Six Star from Shinra High School in the Seventh Ward. Both of them were big names and major superpowers in the Game scene…and most importantly, they were both men.

But whether or not there’d been any talk of love or romance between Minami and either of them was kind of a gray area. I mean, Kugasaki worshipped Saionji. He called her his “goddess,” and I doubt he’d suddenly be infatuated with some other girl that quickly. Kirigaya, on the other hand… I couldn’t make any guesses about his taste in women, but I got the feeling that Games greatly outweighed love in his mind.

“…Hello? No question yet? My frustration waiting for you is at, like, 9.7 out of ten…”

Minami, diagonally across from me, was trying to hurry me along. I could have ignored her and kept on thinking, but I probably was taking an undue amount of time, so I decided just to play it safe.

“Um, just to confirm, should I take your request to mean that more than one guy is pursuing your love?”

“That’s right,” she promptly replied. “If it was just one, I wouldn’t call that being ‘too popular.’”

Then Minami claimed the iced-tea glass and asked her next question to Saionji: “Is your person a second-year who played in ASTRAL?” She was drilling down to specifics now, and Saionji’s answer was yes. Minami was getting much closer.

But…assuming I’m not overthinking this, I think Saionji wrote down the same name that I did. And if she did, there’s no way Minami’s gonna guess it.

That’s right.

That bit of eye contact I’d shared with Saionji at the start of the Game was all about the two of us working out who we’d write down on our cards. We couldn’t write down just anyone if the topic was who’s “most on our mind right now,” but “on our mind” doesn’t necessarily have to have a romantic aspect to it. We could just be interested in this person, or hoping to know more about them—which is why both me and Saionji had written down the first name we’d thought of: Shizuku Minami.

That was almost certainly the best way to go in this Game. After all, even if Minami figured it out, there was no way she could tell us the correct answer. She’d already told us that if she got her question right first, she’d post the name on STOC for all to see—but given how much she hated the limelight, it’d be absolutely impossible for her to post her own name there.

She came up with the rules, though. I’m sure she must’ve thought of that…

I glanced at Minami. She looked as quiet and calm as always.

“If I could eliminate one candidate,” Saionji said, pointing at me, “he’s not pursuing you, is he?”

“I wish I could say he was, but no…”

The glass returned to Minami.

“Hmm… What next…?”

She looked at the clock in the room, then scratched her head a little. I thought she’d attack Saionji again, but after a lot of thought, she turned toward me instead. I guess she was worried about how little information she’d gotten out of me so far.

“Did you write down someone attending Eimei…?”

“No, not Eimei. Another school.”

“Oh… This is tough.”

She didn’t sound disappointed at all about missing the mark as she shook her head. I accepted the glass of iced tea from Minami, watching her blue hair bounce around with every shake of her head, and thought about my next question—but suddenly, a doubt sprang up in my mind.

…Wait. That was a little weird just now, wasn’t it?

I frowned and decided to chase that thought a bit… It wasn’t that the previous question had been strange at all; what caught my attention was the order she’d chosen to ask her questions in. If she had asked that one first, that would’ve eliminated all Eimei students right there, and that would’ve told her it wasn’t Himeji from the very start. Maybe she was deliberately asking pinpoint questions in order to reach the answer sooner, but it wouldn’t benefit her to suddenly change her strategy right now. She’d wind up wasting multiple turns like this.

Okay, so maybe Minami isn’t actually interested in guessing my answer…?

She was barely taking this seriously, and I actually considered that idea for a moment. But if she was trying so hard to hide what her request was, I couldn’t really believe she’d have a change of heart now all of a sudden. If not, though, what could this behavior from her mean, unless she was just trying to waste time?

…Wait. Was that it?

Yeah… The only way this Game really ends is if we run out of time, isn’t it?

I brought my hand to my lips, feeling like I was on the cusp of something… That was it. The rules called for all three of us to guess the answer to the questions we were posed, but nobody said the Game ended if one person guessed the answer right. The only thing that Minami had specified was that she had this room for two hours—at which point the Game would be forced to conclude. That glass of iced tea represented our right to ask questions, and we couldn’t take it out of the karaoke parlor.

Taking a peek at the clock, I saw that we already had less than half an hour left. If Minami was stalling for time whenever her turn came up, I feasibly had two, maybe three chances left.

“Listen, Minami,” I slowly began. “I’m reasonably sure this Game ends once our time is up in this room. Is there no way to extend that?”

“…! You mean…in terms of the rules at the karaoke place here…?”

“No, in terms of the Game’s rules. Is there no way to make the Game last longer than that?”

“Mmm… In that case, the answer’s no.” Minami shook her head lightly. “I reserved the room for two hours… That’s the time limit. When we reach that point, I’m going to chug this iced tea, and you can’t ask any more questions.”

“You’ll choke on it.”

“I don’t care. I’d want nothing else.”

She returned my gaze. So, no overtime, then, I suppose. I had just spent a valuable question confirming that, but seeing as I’d let Saionji in on that piece of info, too, it hadn’t wholly gone to waste. A lateral thinking puzzle is a deduction game where you have to look at things from multiple angles to figure out the answer. We might be opponents in the grand scheme of DearScript, but in this Game, Saionji and I were playing co-op.

“…”

Minami, facing both of us, had her glassy blue eyes on me as she tried to figure out my intentions. Then she moved her glass toward Saionji.

“Did you…speak with this girl today?”

“…Yes.”

She had completely changed her attitude from before and was now quickly closing the distance… She must’ve known the answer from the start, after all. With the rules we were given, it was only natural that Saionji and I would write Shizuku Minami on our cards. She had foreseen that before the Game began, and she was now testing us; would we figure out the machinations behind this Game and discover how to break through them? This was her way, I suppose, of determining whether we were worthy of her trust or not.

“Hmm… Okay.”

Saionji looked at the glass in her hands for a little while, lost in thought, then lifted her chin slightly. Her ruby eyes were right on Minami.

“I’m going to get right to the heart of it. These men trying to romance you… Is it really love they feel for you? Do they want to go out on dates with you, or become your boyfriend?”

“…? Well…I don’t know how people feel…”

…What’s up with that?

Saionji’s query hadn’t just confused Minami, but also me. Had she really needed to ask whether this was about love or not? Minami had already admitted that there was more than one man trying to get her attention, so I really didn’t see how the answer could be anything but “yes” here.

And yet…

“…No, they don’t.”

Wha… The answer’s no?

Despite my prediction, Minami shook her head. “I thought so,” Saionji replied, sounding pretty satisfied with herself. Then her ruby eyes turned toward me, as if to say that had been payback for earlier. That’s the point of lateral thinking I guess—being able to view things from another angle.

No, wait, so…

My mind began to race, my hand reaching my lips a moment later… If her answer to that was “no,” that changed the whole premise of this story. Someone was definitely trying to court Minami, but they didn’t have romantic feelings for her. That meant they were hounding Shizuku Minami for completely different reasons.

Ah… I get it. We’ll have this all worked out by the end. The only problem is the time…

I tapped my earpiece and gave Himeji a certain directive. Judging by her furtive glances, Saionji understood what I was attempting. Basically, it was the only way to retain the right to ask questions without having to extend our time in this room—and if we were too late with it, we’d both lose.

“…”

Minami, meanwhile, was no longer making a secret of her stalling tactic. She cupped the glass with both hands, mumbling along in her usual unhurried, low-energy tone.

“I can see exactly what you’re thinking… The name written on your card belongs to the person you’re talking to. Someone you really want to ravage…right?”

“…Oh? Is that your question?”

“No… It’s still my turn. You were just one step away… You didn’t make it to the truth behind my request.”

“Why the past tense? The Game isn’t over yet.”

“It may as well be… You have only three minutes left… You used up five minutes thinking to yourself just now, so I deserve to take up that much time, too… Complete victory for me.”

She gave us the cruel truth in her slow-paced voice. In short, she didn’t intend to do anything before the time expired. We were in no position to complain about it, but by the same token, this Game was also over for us.

Or it should have been…

“…Thanks for waiting!”

“Hngh?!”

Just then, a peppy voice emerged from the door. Minami, who was facing away, jumped in her seat. As she looked around, trying to figure out what was going on, Saionji and I blithely stood up and accepted the drinks from the clerk—ordered through the Company just now. They were, of course, two iced teas.

Sitting down on the sofa, we both grinned at Minami.

“Hee-hee! You’ve got the right to ask questions when you have a glass of iced tea, right? You never said that particular glass, and you didn’t say we couldn’t order more, either.”

“Yeah. Now it’s our turn for as long as we want it to be. Okay?”

I placed my glass in front of the dumbfounded Minami. Saionji grinned.

“First,” I said, “let’s go over what we know. After the end of ASTRAL in the May Interschools, you suddenly became extremely popular with men. You attend a fairly cloistered girls’ school, so I can certainly see how appearing in an event like that might’ve attracted a lot of interest in you…but the way you put it, these men seeking your attention aren’t doing so for romantic reasons.”

“Exactly,” added Saionji. “Which leads to what you mean when you said you’re ‘attracting guys.’ Let’s look back at ASTRAL. You were one of the few players who survived until the final stages. You duked it out all the way until Day Four, when all the remaining players were much higher ranked than you. In other words, you showed real strength in that event. I’m not sure if you meant it like that, but you gave the whole world a glimpse of your talents. I think you realized that, too, right, Shinohara?”

“Well, yeah. If I hadn’t, I don’t think I would’ve been able to make it so far in this Game. Right, Minami? You normally hide all your talent, but you revealed a little of it in ASTRAL, and all your friends saw it. And by ‘friends,’ I don’t mean your St. Rosalia classmates, but the two people who teamed up with you in the second half—Seiran Kugasaki and Toya Kirigaya.”

The moment their names left my lips, Minami’s face noticeably tensed up. We were on the right track, and we kept on pressing her.

“Those two saw how powerful you are, and that attracted their attention. Kugasaki runs the Self-Styled Holy Knights, and Kirigaya’s part of some shadowy group I’m not wholly clued in on yet, but anyway, it exists. I’m sure either of them would want a dark-horse talent like you.”

“Right. And you described that as them being ‘attracted’ to you. I bet it felt like they were all over you—two high-ranked players competing for your attention and all. But you hate the limelight, so you weren’t happy about all the attention. That’s why you posted on Meetia to help make them stop…but you framed it as being suddenly super popular, so this affair wouldn’t attract undue attention.”

Saionji cutely chuckled at my summary.

Minami, meanwhile, stayed frozen for a moment, staring down at the table. After a little while, she took out her device and extended our stay in the room. Then, turning her head back up, she looked us both in the eye.

“You’re absolutely right… Wow, you two. I didn’t think you’d actually get it…”

“Thanks. Are you willing to admit we won, then?”

“Of course I am.” She nodded meekly at us, all the hesitation from before now firmly in the past. “I can entrust you with this… But…” Her facial expression changed just a little bit…to one of dissatisfaction. “I might…be a little angry now.”

Through her pursed lips, I could sense just a hint of that aura from her undefeated glory days, and I inhaled sharply.

“Um, by the way…”

A few minutes later, we were still in our karaoke room—Minami had extended our time, so there was no reason for us not to use it. We were a lot more casual with each other now that the Game was over, and as I enjoyed my iced tea, I decided to ask Minami a question.

“What were you like in middle school, exactly? I mean, I did my research, so I know you were unbeaten and super strong and all, but I’m still having a hard time picturing what you were like.”

“Hmm…”

Minami’s bangs shook gently as she considered my question. She looked as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to talk about it, but she must’ve decided that she trusted us all the way now, because she quietly began to speak.

“The middle school I attended used pretty much the same system as the Academy… There was a Game system, and rankings, and so on. I found it pretty fun, so in my first year there, I just did it to hone my skills. I’d think about stuff, figure out strategies, work hard to be better than everyone else…and I kept improving. I didn’t lose once.”

“Yeah.”

“And that was fun at first, of course. I liked the praise I got…but it started to grate on me a little after a while. I was changing…and so were the eyes of everyone around me. I think you’d understand.”

I nodded back at her. “Mmm… That tends to end up happening. If there’s one person who’s way more talented than all the average people around them, they get attention, both good and bad. And they get blamed for a lot of other people’s emotions.”

“Right. The excitement, the hatred, those…expectations from people I don’t even know. I don’t think I was suited for dealing with all that. I’d been living in my own little perfect world, but now all these other people were watching me…and once that dawned on me, it suddenly got so boring.”

“…You mean, you stopped enjoying it? Or did the pressure get to you?”

“No, something more basic than that… I mean, I’d worked so hard for my own sake, not for anyone else’s. So I didn’t want anyone to share in that…or take it away from me. ‘I don’t belong to anyone…’ That’s how I felt, so I went as far away as I could for high school. Someplace where no one would pay attention to me… Where I wouldn’t stand out. And if I stayed on mainland Japan, there’d always be rumors about me…so I went to the Academy.”

“Ahh, I see… Is that why you deliberately picked St. Rosalia, with its low ranking and all?”

“…? No… I picked it because a lot of cute girls go there.”

“…Oh. Okay.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the straightforward way Minami said that. Then Saionji, who had just been listening for the past little bit, leaned forward.

“Can I ask you something, too? You said you’re trying not to attract attention, Shizuku…but why did you play in ASTRAL, then? You even had a Unique Star.”

“Uh…yeah. That was my biggest mistake. This girl with a Unique Star challenged me to a Game last month, and I was trying to lose, but I won instead…and, well, when they were picking our team for ASTRAL, I’d just become a Four Star with that purple one. It was a huge mistake… The next time a cute girl asks me for a Game, I’m gonna do all my research on her before committing.”

“…I see.”

If it was something as small as that, which was why guys like Kugasaki and Kirigaya were pursuing her, I suppose Minami did deserve some of our sympathy. We had our answers, but now Minami wanted to talk about her request.

“So…that’s why I really didn’t want anyone to befriend me or have expectations for me. I wanted someone to do something about it…so I made that request, but…”

Minami raised her gaze, unsure whether to continue. Those blue eyes that looked at me, then Saionji, had a forlorn sort of shimmer to them.

“When I said I didn’t trust you, it wasn’t anything you did… It’s just that…Sairan Kugasaki and Toya Kirigaya are both bad news. Getting them off my back might not be that easy…”

“Oh? Are you saying you’re worried about us?”

“Simply put, yes…but you won my Game. You proved your strength. So…can I believe in you?”

Her weak voice held both hope and anxiety. She wasn’t very good at having other people share their feelings with her, and I suppose she wasn’t much used to the opposite, either. And her concern was valid—Shizuku Minami was a prospect with vast potential. She was probably worth a whole lot more than she thought she was. Kugasaki and Kirigaya were likely both dead serious about pursuing her, to the point where they’d stage some kind of large-scale Game to decide who got her.

That’d be the worst-case scenario, though… Hmm?

Suddenly, I felt my device vibrate in my pocket. My mind froze. Looking at the screen, I saw it was another notification from DearScript. My orders about winning Minami’s trust were fulfilled, and now I had another New Objective Unlocked! window to read.

Additional Order: Make contact with Toya Kirigaya at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Seventh Ward station and convince him to give up on Shizuku Minami. However, you must do this in a way that does not involve a Game.

“…Is that one of your orders?”

I showed Minami my screen. She blinked at it for a bit.

“Yeah. Basically, it’s one of the things I have to do as part of this Game we’re in. No matter how crazy it is, if I want to beat Saionji, I’ve got no choice but to do this… Actually, what about you, Saionji? Did you get assigned Kugasaki?”

“You guessed it. To explain it in a way Shizuku would understand…basically, in order to win this, I need to stop Kugasaki, and Shinohara has to stop Kirigaya. Those are our victory conditions.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I said, looking at my device. “The gamemaster’s powers are unfathomable, though. They don’t seem to be watching us, but they knew the Game just ended and immediately gave us these new orders…but it’s not all bad, either. I know from previous experience that none of these orders are physically impossible to complete. In fact, it’s been proven to us that no matter how tough these orders are, if they’re given to us, it means there’s absolutely a way to fulfill them.”

Ever since Saionji and I kicked off this Unique Star competition, everything we’d done as a part of it—from the Rainbow Pâtisserie rules to our double date schedule—had been foreseen by the gamemaster. Thinking about it like that, these orders must be just as doable. All that mattered was whether me or Saionji satisfied the winning conditions first.

I looked at Minami, still pretty anxious as she eyed us, and spoke as confidently as I could.

“Don’t worry, Minami… Your request is as good as solved.”

The next day, after using Minami’s device to send Kirigaya a message saying I want to talk and steering him toward the location I’d been given, I was also on my way there, arms folded as I quietly thought to myself.

I said this was as good as solved…but who knows?

This same issue had been puzzling me since yesterday. I mean, I’d told the truth to Minami; our orders in DearScript were set up so nothing was completely impossible to carry out. That much wasn’t a lie, but we were only talking possibilities here—we hadn’t been given step-by-step instructions. The gamemaster might be able to see everything, but that wasn’t true for me.

Normally, we’d stage a Game over Minami or something like that. Can I really finish this just by trying to reason with Kirigaya? I mean, he’s so combative, I’m surprised he wants to get someone as introverted as Minami to join his group.

I’d racked my brain but made no progress at all. My right hand went up to my lips, and just then, Himeji’s clear voice came through my earpiece.

“Keep in mind, also, that speed is what you’re competing over. Knowing what Mr. Kirigaya is like, even if you can avoid a Game and just discuss it with him instead, he’s bound to apply some sort of condition to agreeing to leave Minami alone. With Rina, on the other hand, she already has Kugasaki’s unconditional love and respect, so she might get him to agree within seconds.”

…Yeah.

I sighed a little at Himeji’s prediction… And, really, she wasn’t wrong. Kugasaki and Kirigaya were both tough opponents to have, but for Kugasaki, Sarasa Saionji was his biggest weak spot. He loved the Empress from deep within his heart, and I was sure he’d follow any orders she gave him. Saionji herself had admitted as much yesterday, saying “Hee-hee! Sorry about that” and smiling at me as if she’d already won.

So the odds already seemed against me here…but I couldn’t just give up, either.

“…Whew.”

I let out a sigh as I saw Kirigaya at the agreed-upon meeting point.

“…Hey, Kirigaya. Nice to see ya.”

We were on the main street in front of the Seventh Ward station, which was lined with office buildings and restaurants. Kirigaya had been leaning against the front window of a store when I called out to him from the side. “Huh…?” he said, giving me a dubious look. He clearly wasn’t up for an idle chat today, but once he saw who I was, his lips curled into an evil grin.

“Hya-hah! Hiroto Shinohara, huh? What a coincidence. What’re you doin’ on my turf?”

“What am I doing? What, am I not allowed in the Seventh Ward without good reason?”

“Huh? Nah, man. You’re always welcome here. Around these parts, strength means everything.”

Kirigaya brushed his hair back. He was being openly hostile toward me, but I kept it cool, giving him an “Oh yeah?” before getting to my real reason for being there.

“So I got some news for you… Minami’s not coming. That message yesterday was from me.”

“Huh…? Dude, what the hell’s up with that? She hangin’ with you now or somethin’?”

“Not in the way I think you mean…but more or less. I’ve been asked for a couple favors, so now I’m here to stop you from dragging her over to your side.”

I took a step closer to Kirigaya, a faint smile on my lips. His slicked-back hair and intimidating sneer wasn’t exactly reassuring to see, but I wasn’t about to show any fear on my face. I looked at him, keeping it cool on the surface.

Kirigaya, for his part, fell silent for a moment…then gave a small shrug.

“Drag her over, huh…? No way. I dunno how you’ve jumped to that conclusion, but there’s no way I’d ever do anything that lame. Not even once in my life.”

“…Not even once? But you’ve been in contact with Minami since ASTRAL ended, right?”

“Yeah, I reached out to her. Personally, I mean. But that’s just so I could take her on in a Game. I wanted to see for myself whether those flashes of talent she showed in ASTRAL are the real deal or not.”

“A Game…?” I whispered to myself. Now this was starting to come together. Knowing what I knew about Toya Kirigaya, that kind of behavior seemed to make a lot more sense. He knew the kind of raw talent Minami had, but he didn’t want it for himself—he wanted to dominate it.

“But, you know…” Kirigaya said, shaking his head with apparent boredom. He seemed a little annoyed as he thrust a hand in his pocket. “A little bit ago, I did some looking into her past. Middle school, to be exact. Did you know, Shinohara? She used to be in the same kinda invincible echelon you’re in. But she gave up the throne…and now she’s attending St. Rosalia? That’s such crap. She just ran away, y’know?”

“…? What’s it matter what she did?”

“Hya-hah! What’s it matter? It’s the whole damn thing, man. If you run away, even just once, you’re done for. And playing a Game against someone who’s a shell of her former self like that? That’d never satisfy me!” As he spoke, Kirigaya leaned toward me, his malicious grin curling up even further. “No, it’s all you, Hiroto Shinohara. You excite me more than anything. You get my blood really pumping.”

“…Can you stop being weird?”

“Heh. Nice. Not too many people can show me that kinda attitude. I’d love to take this chance to fight it out with you right now, but…”

I thought he was challenging me to a Game on the spot, but Kirigaya stopped cold just before that.

“Hiroto Shinohara,” he said as he took out his device. “Do you know…about the summer event comin’ up?”

“The summer event? …No, I don’t.”

“Ah. Well, it’s a huge Game-based event—one of the biggest on the island. The attention, the excitement… Everything’s top of the line, y’know? And I know we’ll both get picked to play in it…so how ’bout we settle the score then?”

“…Hmm? I’m surprised you even have that kind of patience.”

“Hya-hah! What the hell’re you talkin’ about, Seven Star? This’s a duel between you and me, man! You think some random street corner like this is the right stage for that kinda epic matchup? And also…”

He thrust the screen of his device toward me. It was displaying his own profile, showing his rank and other stats, and on it I could see four regular, normal stars, the black Unique Star he’d put to use during ASTRAL…and one other. There, on the far end of the display, was the gray star Shizuku Minami had lost in ASTRAL.

“…! So you got it?”

“Yep. Your ass is still takin’ up the Seven Star slot, so this gray star replaced one of my normal ones, but that makes me a double Unique Star holder. I still haven’t done much research into using it yet, though, so as I said, I got no interest in springin’ a Game on you right now.”

“…”

“Hya-hah…! So watch your back this summer, Seven Star! I’m gonna stir up all the shit, go crazy, and make sure your career here is over for good. You’re one hell of a toy, but I can’t waste my fun on a bunch of dumb crap. I’ll play with you till I’m good and bored, then I’ll destroy you. You got that? The next event is gonna be your last.”

With one more evil grin, Kirigaya turned his back to me and tromped down the street. I guess he was already making plans for whatever this summer event was. That was how Kirigaya always worked, though; he’d spare no effort to maximize his fun.

As I watched him go, I brought my right hand to my lips. This did seem like another potential crisis on the horizon for me. That said, couldn’t it also be treated as Kirigaya renouncing his claim on Minami? Had I satisfied my victory conditions…?

…Oh, right. Saionji…

Snapping out of it, I calmed my rushing heartbeat and opened the DearScript app. I couldn’t use it to see how Saionji was doing with her orders, of course…but looking at the bottom of the page, I saw the word CONGRATULATIONS! and text confirming that I had conquered the final quest.

I won…? But why?

“Congratulations, Master.”

Himeji’s voice startled me a bit. But she also had an answer to my question—although she sounded pretty fuzzy about it, too.

“Ms. Kagaya is keeping an eye on Rina, but she… Well, how would I describe this? Mr. Kugasaki’s gone down on his knees in public in front of her, saying ‘If you want me to leave Shizuku Minami alone, then you have to play a Game with me!’”

Oh. Ohhhh… That makes sense.

I gave her a little nod of understanding. I guess that was one of the side effects of being treated like an object of worship. It was the exact opposite of Kirigaya, who idolizes the thrill of combat so much that he was patient enough to wait for the perfect opportunity to fight me.

But anyway…regardless of the reason, Saionji had yet to complete her final orders. Looking at my DearScript app, I really had completed the final quest—and with that, the Unique Star competition we’d spent over three weeks on ended with me as the victor.

“…Hee-hee! I knew you could do it, Hiroto. No way were you gonna lose to something like this. But since we’ve come all this way, it’d be nice if you could play with me for just a little longer. So keep on trying, Hiroto, if you want to see me…okay?”

“…”

A few hours after my “negotiations” with Kirigaya had ended, I was in my living room, facing Saionji in her hoodie disguise across the table.

She had only arrived here around twenty minutes ago. After finding a way to avoid a Game with Kugasaki and make it look natural, she plodded back here, exhausted, and promptly changed clothes. She had her head propped up on one arm against the table, still not willing to admit defeat.

“Hngh… Why couldn’t I win this one? When I saw that last order, I didn’t think I could possibly lose. What kind of trick did you pull?”

“Actually, I didn’t do anything this time. Kirigaya just happened to be losing his attachment to Minami when I talked to him.”

“Oh… He was? So, if I was assigned him instead of Kugasaki… Ahh, forget it. It’s so lame, thinking about what-ifs after I lost.”

Her stunning red hair spread itself across the table as she put her head against it, chiding herself. Indeed, if our assignments had been swapped, I think she would’ve easily won, but I guess her pride as the Empress prevented her from clinging to that thought. Hardship seemed to go hand in hand with her sometimes.

And not that I felt pity for her, but…

“Well…I do have you to thank for winning the Game against Minami, though.”

“…D-don’t be stupid! I wasn’t asking you for praise.”

She looked to the side, pouting. I was a little put off by that blunt response, but then she softly whispered, “…Still, thanks,” and I suddenly needed to find something else to look at, too. That…had been a little unfair, I think. She’s cute enough as it is. I wish she wouldn’t get all real with me like that.

“Um, so, Saionji.”

“…Excuse me. I’m sorry to interrupt your flirting, but could we get back on topic?”

““…!””

Himeji’s voice cut in from the side and startled both of us. We blushed and cleared our throats, trying to hide our shame as Himeji sullenly glared at us.

“As you know,” she began, “my master was the first to complete Ms. Minami’s request for the Unique Star competition’s final quest. You could say that she’s no longer as ‘popular’ as she was before. She contacted me earlier, but apparently Mr. Kugasaki has already sent her a book-length apology letter.”

“Sounds like something he’d do, yeah… On the other hand, I don’t think Kirigaya’s gonna bother talking to her again.”

“No. But with that, my master has won the competition two games to one against Rina, and the purple Unique Star offered as the prize will now go to him. As for DearScript, the gamebook driving this competition, a new page has been added now that the final quest is complete. This is likely going to be the final page, but… Master?”

I felt her clear eyes on me as I nodded and took out my device. Launching DearScript, I found a new page with a single, one-line order:

Order: Go to XXXXXXXXXXXX on June 10 at one PM to meet the DearScript gamemaster.

“…Hmmm?”

Saionji leaned over from across the table. “You’ll meet the gamemaster…? That’s your reward, huh? It really is the final order.”

“Yeah. Though, actually, what reward would you have gotten?”

“…? What do you think? I’d have Meetia tell me my fortune for love—ah! Wait! No, it’s a secret! I don’t need to tell you all that! But this is your childhood friend, right?”

Saionji suddenly exercised her right to remain silent, despite having basically revealed everything anyway. I wanted to press her for more details, but those ruby eyes stopped me, so I took the hint and returned to the main issue at hand.

“Well, I know that I can meet the DearScript gamemaster tomorrow afternoon, but unfortunately, the location’s been blacked out. I have no idea where I should be going.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Himeji chimed in. “We looked into it, and it doesn’t appear to be a bug. It’s likely the way the app was designed to behave.”

“So your friend’s not telling you where you’ll find her on purpose? That doesn’t make much sense. Can your team of cheaters do something about that, Yuki?”

“It’s called the Company, Rina… And sadly not. I did think about that already, of course, but…”

Himeji looked up at me and shook her head slowly, an apologetic look in her eyes. Seeing her response, I let out a deep sigh.

“We’ve lost contact with Kagaya and everybody else. We had no problems getting through to them all through the final quest, but now my earpiece has gone silent.”

“We lost contact with everyone…? Did they leave after the job was done?”

“No, it shouldn’t be something like that…but either way, we cannot expect any support from the Company for this. If it was a simple program, I could find a way around it myself, but DearScript has some fairly tough protection, sadly…”

She might be the leader of the Company, but Himeji really couldn’t hold a candle to Kagaya in terms of computer skills.

“…Ah, well. We’ll have to go right to the provost, then—hmm?”

I was about to contact Provost Ichinose, the direct employer of the Company…but then my device on the table started to play a shrill ringtone. Looking at the sender, I saw that it was a phone call from the provost herself. Her timing was a little too convenient for my tastes, but I motioned with my eyes for Saionji to keep quiet as I cleared my throat and answered the call.

“Hello, this is Shinohara.”

“Hee-hee… Hello, Shinohara! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? The Company told me how the Unique Star competition worked out. Very impressive work! Even with all the help the Company gave you, you performed exceedingly well against the Empress. I’m sure you must be mentally exhausted by now, huh?”

“Yeah, I suppose so. It went on for a while, so I’m definitely feeling the fatigue.”

“Are you? Well, get a good night’s rest tonight. You’ll have your purple star by tomorrow morning. That’s your fourth color star…hee-hee! One step closer to becoming a legend, aren’t you?”

“A legend…? Well, fine. But listen, um, Provost…”

I wasn’t sure how to react to the provost’s gleeful appraisal, so I just got down to business instead. First, I gave her a rundown of what we were dealing with right now—the final page of DearScript, which had been revealed after the competition’s end, the special trick preventing me from seeing the location of our meeting, and the Company suddenly going offline just when we needed their help.

“Hmm…,” the provost quietly murmured after I explained everything to her…but this wasn’t the sort of serious sound of her being troubled or put in a difficult position. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, that “hmm” was her way of saying, “Now this sounds like something interesting.”

“All right. So what you’re trying to tell me is that you beat the Empress in the competition, but you still can’t meet your childhood friend yet. And you can’t bear the thought of missing this chance to see her, so you want the Company to bail you out right to the very end. Is that it?”

“Uh… That feels like kind of a mean translation, but putting it bluntly, yes, you’re right.”

“Hmm, I see, I see… Heh… Heh-heh! Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”

The uproarious laughter from the other side of the line made me yank the device away from my ear. I froze up, failing to comprehend her reaction, but then the provost continued, talking loud and fast enough that I didn’t need to turn on speaker mode.

“Now I get it! It all makes sense! Wow… Finally, the riddle is solved!”

“Uh, I think I’m gonna be stuck with this ‘riddle’ forever unless you explain what you’re talking about…”

“Well, just before, I received a message from my contact account for the Company. It was sent by ‘Anonymous,’ but looking at the CC’s, I think everybody but Shirayuki was involved in it. Here’s what it said: ‘We helped you all the way up to obtaining the purple star, but you’ll need to search for your cute li’l childhood friend yourself, Hiro! We’re going on vacation!’”

“…?! That’s totally Kagaya who wrote that!”

“Hee-hee! Isn’t it funny, how they’re not even bothering to hide the truth? It’s a pretty jokey message, yes, but the Company’s gonna be boycotting your next quest, it looks like. Guess you got on their bad side, huh?”

“Their bad side? I didn’t—”

“Like, maybe, having that flirty date with Shirayuki.”

“…Sorry about that.”

I was so acutely aware of what she was talking about, I didn’t even bother trying to defend myself. Even if she’d just been watching in from her remote feed, I couldn’t imagine how hard it had been for Kagaya to provide support for our pseudo-date from start to finish. And her stance was perfectly valid, too. The Unique Star competition was over, and DearScript wasn’t going to win or cost me stars any longer. Deploying the Company just to track down an old friend did seem like abusing my authority a little.

“Hee-hee! So, there you go. Best of luck with that!”

“Ah, wait—”

But the provost mercilessly cut off the call before I could protest, and I was left holding my device, staring into space. Then my head shot back up.

“…You both heard that, right?!”

“Y-yes…”

“Of course, Master.”

“All right! Himeji, you said you couldn’t decipher that blacked-out part, but would it be impossible even with the Company’s gear? Like if you had the tablet Kagaya brought in here, for example?!”

“Yes… Even with that, it would be a tough ask. I don’t have her technical skills, and if I wasn’t included in that group message, that probably makes me the ‘enemy’ in their eyes. I imagine the Company has frozen my account by now.”

“Ugh… Okay, Saionji! Can you do anything to help out?!”

“M-me? No way. Yuki knows a lot more about computers than I do.”

“Then what about using the Saionji family’s influence to figure out something?!”

“Oh, no way! I mean, if I lend you that much of a hand and you track her down, that’s nothing but bad for me, isn’t it? We’re coconspirators obligated to keep our lies going, right? And this could tear all of that apart.”

“What?! No, no, I’m not gonna stop holding up my part of the bargain just because I finally get to see her!”

“Uh-huh. I don’t believe you. You’re a big liar, after all,” Saionji said, turning away from me.

I did get what she meant, though. Our conspiracy was based on the lies we told, and if I no longer had a reason to keep up my lie, our relationship would become uncertain. That was why she wasn’t at all eager to help me out with this, and honestly…

She’s absolutely right…! I mean, if I were Saionji, I’d never lend a hand, either! Same with the provost! What the hell, man? Am I screwed…?!

My brain was starting to freak out. I tried to keep it together as I brought a hand to my lips.

But just then, Himeji quietly interjected.

“Um, Master…don’t you think it best to give up on it this time?”

“…! Give up? After I’ve come this far?”

“Yes. You’ve already achieved your objective of obtaining the Unique Star, so pulling out now doesn’t mean your work went to waste. And I’ll say this again…but I adore you from the bottom of my heart. Normally, if you were in a big rush to meet your beloved, I’d offer my full support, never giving up until the very end…but do you mind if I say something rather strange?”

“Strange…?”

“Yes. Something I’ve been wondering about from the beginning. Do you think the gamemaster running DearScript really is your childhood friend? She’s been running this enormous operation, sending out order after order that seemed perfectly timed for every situation you were in… There’s simply no way a regular teenage girl could do all of that. I find it rather frightening, in fact. So…I apologize, Master, but I must speak out against this.”

Her clear blue eyes were staring straight at me as she made her earnest appeal. And, honestly…I had also found that kind of creepy as well. Your average teenage girl could have never pulled off something like that. We were dealing with an unknown, almost ominous presence, and I fully understood why Himeji might not want me to see her.

But if I just gave up here, it’d leave the absolute worst taste in my mouth…!

That was what I’d thought…but after the provost laughed in my face, Saionji turned away from me, and Himeji bowed and made her appeal, I was left completely alone. I was normally touted as the Seven Star, the best in the Academy, but bluffing my way out of trouble was the only thing I could do myself. That was it—I’d never overcome this adversity unless I had somebody’s help.

But who out there had Company-level skills, wouldn’t lose anything if they helped me, and would in fact be glad to lend me their aid? Was there really someone that convenient—

“…Oh?”

Wait. There might be.

I silently sank deep into my thoughts as Himeji and Saionji gave each other odd looks.

The next morning, Himeji and I visited the provost’s office at the Eimei School. There, sitting on a sofa on the other side of the glass table, Provost Ichinose was elegantly enjoying a glass of wine.

“Hee-hee… Hey, you two. Glad to see you. Have a seat, and I’ll get some extra glasses.”

“…You’re drinking in the middle of the day, Ms. Evil Vixen? I’m glad to see you’ve got it good.”

“Hmm? No, you’ve got it wrong, Shirayuki. I’m not day drinking. I’m still drinking from last night.”

“That’s…rather serious, isn’t it? Ugh… Did something good happen to you?”

“Well, I’m celebrating your master’s exploits, of course,” said the provost, turning to me with a big smile on her face. She had her usual office attire on, but her eyes were a little glassy from the alcohol, and she was a lot more physically expressive than usual. It was, honestly, pretty alluring.

“Shinohara, you took on Sarasa Saionji, the Empress of the Third Ward’s Ohga School, and won. You’ve obtained your fourth Unique Star—which, as you know, is used for copying data. You’ll find that very useful, I’ll wager.”

“I’m sure I will. Could I copy other Unique Stars, for example?”

“Of course not… Listen, Shinohara. Out of all the systems on the Academy, the ones related to stars boast the toughest protection of all. If your purple star could break that, every provost on this island would be busting their asses searching for it. It’d be the only thing you’d needed to conquer this whole place.”

“Yeah, true…”

I’d just wanted to be sure—I hadn’t actually planned on trying it. But as I shook my head, the provost looked at me and smiled cheerfully.

“You’ve surpassed even my wildest dreams! You are full of surprises. Actually, you mind if I tell you a little story? The last time Eimei produced a Seven Star was ten years ago, back when I was a student here. In those days, Eimei was the top-ranked school three years in a row; it was the dominant contender on the island. Ohga, Shinra, Suisei—they were nothing.”

“Wow, Eimei in its heyday, huh…?”

“Yeah, it was a real golden age. You could even say we used to rule the entire Academy. Eimei had eighty percent of the Six Stars and more than half of all the color stars, and it was all thanks to the Seven Star they called the ‘Devil of Eimei.’ But you know, Shinohara…I think we could make a huge leap this year, big enough to take us back to those glory days. You might be nothing but a good liar right now, but if you collect three more Unique Stars, you actually will be a Seven Star. And the Devil didn’t make it there, but if you could become an Eight Star; that’d completely rewrite the history of this island.”

“…Wow, you’re pretty drunk, Provost.”

“Drunk on more than just wine!”

She chuckled at this as she put her glass back on the table. Then she looked at me with those bleary eyes.

“But enough teasing you. You’re here to talk about DearScript, aren’t you? The Company abandoned you, and now you’ve come crying to me.”

With some annoyance, I braced myself for more teasing and kept my eyes on her.

“…I didn’t think the Company would boycott me like that.”

“Hey, don’t yell at me for it. They carried out their duty, so I don’t see any reason for you to resent them. And if you don’t know where the gamemaster is, just comb the island until you find her.”

“I’d need more than a whole day to do that… Ugh.”

I let out a sigh as I turned down the provost’s suggestion. But she raised her eyebrows at me, as if something I said had piqued her interest.

“…Hmm. You seem pretty calm, Shinohara, given your situation. I thought you’d be more agitated, after being given that impossible order.”

“I hate to agree with you, Ms. Evil Vixen, but I thought the same thing myself. Do you have some sort of plan in mind, Master? A breakthrough of some kind?”

“Yeah.” I nodded at the two doubtful women, one in front of me and one standing at my side, then smiled. “It’s just like the last part of the final quest. DearScript has never given me an order that was physically impossible to carry out. You called it impossible just now, Provost, but that can’t be the case.”

“Oh? Glad you sound so confident, but what basis do you have for that? Don’t tell me you found someone to help you out.”

“Of course I did. Over in that room.”

With that revelation, I stood up from the sofa. Behind me, I could hear Himeji say “Oh… So that’s your plan?” as I stood by the other door in the office and turned the knob. On the other side was a room much smaller than the provost’s chamber, and while it was outfitted in much the same way, it looked quite a bit more lived in. On a sofa in the middle of this room was a black-haired girl. She was curled up into a ball and sleeping soundly in a frilly negligee like some kind of angel.

“Ugh… She’s still sleeping in this late? Hey! Shiina!”

Yes, Tsumugi Shiina. The innocent monster who crafted the Academy’s first fake identity from scratch. The girl Mikado Kurahashi attempted to have do his dirty work for him. I last saw her on the first day of DearScript, but I’d sent her a message last night to check if she was still here, and she confirmed that she hadn’t moved out yet. That was how I’d known where to find her—this solo genius who might outclass the best the Company had to offer.

“Hey, Shiina, how long’re you gonna sleep? It’s gonna be noon shortly.”

“Mmh… Hmnh… Two more days…”

“You’re talking days?” I sighed. “If you don’t get up, I’m gonna have to use force, all right?”

I approached the sofa Shiina was slumbering on. Quietly bending over, I took a look at her totally defenseless face and ever-so-slightly poked her in the cheek.

“Hnnh? …Mrmm… Hngh…”

“Shaking your head isn’t gonna get rid of me. Please, Shiina, wake up.”

“Wake up…? Wa…wake… Hrm?”

She moaned and groaned a bit at my relentless attack, but slowly, by fits and starts, she awakened, her heavy eyelids gradually pushing themselves up to reveal one jet-black and one bright red eye underneath.

“Fweh? …Ah! You?!”

She propped herself up on the sofa at once, hugging her Cerberus doll to her chest as her eyes shone.

“You came for me! Hey, can you play something with me today? Can you?”

“Um, calm down one sec, Shiina. Also, real talk for a second—you really shouldn’t go to sleep with your contacts on. What if you mess up your eyes?”

“Ooh, sorry, I was up real late, so… Wait, no! I appreciate your concern, but these are for real! I forged a contract with a dark dragon to obtain these eerie alien eyes, so my eyesight’s twenty-twenty times, like, a thousand! …But I’ll be more careful of that from now on!”

“Great. Thanks.”

I didn’t know what she was getting so defensive about, but it’d be impolite of me to ask. Anyway, once she was sufficiently chilled out, I took my device out of my pocket.

“So, Shiina… I came here to ask you a favor.”

“A favor? Me…? W-well, what is it? Did you want a piece of my dark power?!”

“No, unfortunately, it’s not that. So I’ve got this app on my device called DearScript, but I was hoping you could poke around inside it a little for me. It’s got this annoying security on it, so it won’t display this line of text that I really need to see.”

“Mmm? Where’s that?”

“Right here… Uh, for various reasons, I can’t let anyone else touch my device…but I should be able to use my purple star to create a replica of this app and send it to you.”

I wasn’t keeping up a very good cover here, I knew. The “various reasons” were all the fake and illegal Abilities I had crammed into this thing, so there was no way I could lend it to anyone else.

Regardless, Shiina fixed her oddly colored eyes on my device as I held it up. Not that I was really expecting a lot—asking a middle schooler to remove the protection from some unknown application for me was really just too much.

“…Um, is that all you need?” But the puzzled Shiina decided to shock me. “Because if that’s all, I don’t think it’ll take too much time…but will you play something with me if I do it?”

“S-sure. I’m kind of busy today, but I could hang with you this entire weekend if you like. But…can you really do that?”

“Oh, yeah, no problem! Can you copy it to this device for me?”

I took the device Shiina gave me and sent a copy of DearScript I’d made with my purple star over to her. Then I placed the device back on Shiina’s palm, and she promptly hopped back on the sofa, humming to herself as she got to work. She didn’t break out any specialist hardware at all—just let her fingers dance across the multiple screens she projected out.

“Put this over here…and that links up just right. Then you just massage it a bit…get that round piece out, then pull in hard!”

“…”

“Then you just mix the whole thing up, put it back in the box… All done!”

“…Are you serious?”

I could barely keep it together as I looked at her… It was done? Had she really said she was finished? It hadn’t even been half a minute since she’d begun working on it…

“Uhhh… Hey, Shiina, I don’t really have time for jokes right now—”

“I-I’m not joking! Ugggh… Here, look at this.”

She puffed up her cheeks as she thrust her device toward me. When I looked at it, I saw that she hadn’t been joking one bit—the meetup location, blacked out before, was now fully visible.

“…That’s all you needed, right?”

“Yeah… Great work, Shiina. This is perfect.”

“Waaah?! Wh-why are you petting me? …Mmmh…eh-heh-heh…”

The way the proud look on Shiina’s face had clouded over just a little bit was so cute I hadn’t been able to stop myself from reaching out to stroke her shiny black hair. The moment I touched her hair, her entire body had twitched, but she’d relaxed almost immediately after. Now she was letting me pet her, completely comfortable, like a cat craving human attention. She’d occasionally kick her legs, too, only strengthening the resemblance to an adorable small animal.

…Ah, no, no, now’s no time for this!

Finally regaining control of myself, I shook my head and stood up from the sofa. I would’ve loved to keep petting her for a little while, but my hands were tied.

“…Fweh? You’re going already…?”

“…Yeah. Sorry. Like I said, I’ve gotta do something today.”

“Ohhh… All right. But we’re gonna have a lot of fun this weekend!”

“We sure are… Thanks, Shiina. You really saved me this time.”

With those words of appreciation, I went back to the provost’s office, only to be greeted by two people who were showing the exact opposite body language that Shiina had just now. One was Himeji, waiting for me with a mixture of surprise, admiration, and a whole lot of other emotions across her face. The other was Provost Ichinose, slyly grinning at me across from Himeji.

“Hee-hee… Very impressive, Shinohara. That was undoubtedly the right answer to this riddle. I can’t think of anyone else who’s not invested in this but still has Company-level skills.”

“…Yeah, thanks.”

The provost might have been applauding me…literally…but I just rolled my eyes at her. I didn’t know if Himeji or Saionji had thought about Shiina before now, but if the provost has been living with her for so long, this approach must have occurred to her yesterday. She hadn’t moved Shiina anywhere, no, but she certainly didn’t point me in her direction, either. Very fair, or neutral, of her…I guess. Things never go easy between her and me.

“Now,” she said, bringing a finger to her glasses, “you’ve obtained the right to fully complete DearScript. Now that we’re at this point, Shirayuki, I assume you have no objections?”

“…No, Ms. Evil Vixen. I would never object to my master’s decisions. But I’d like to know one thing: Who is the gamemaster of DearScript? Is it really the childhood friend my master’s looking for…?”

“Oh? You make it sound like I know everything but have just decided to keep quiet about it.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. When DearScript was first revealed to you, you reacted very much like you knew what it was already. Is this gamemaster an acquaintance of yours?”

“Well, who can say? Maybe I’ll tell you if you drop the ‘Ms. Evil Vixen’ thing and call me your auntie Natsume instead.”

“…”

“Hee-hee! Oh, don’t look at me like that, Shirayuki. You’ll make me awaken to all new types of after-dark play.”

“Ugh…”

Himeji sighed, her silvery hair swaying as she scowled at the provost who loved playing with her so much.

“If that’s what you want, Ms. Evil Vixen, then fine… I’ll find out for myself.”

“Sounds great to me.”

The provost nodded eagerly and checked her watch. Then, as ferocious and sadistic as always, she grabbed her wine glass, took another sip, and grinned.

“All right, you two. It’s just about time, so you better get ready. I don’t think you’ll need to bring a gift…but say hi to her for me, won’t you?”