Liar, Liar - Volume 6 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

SFIA Kicks Off

“These truly are some, uh…quite artistic scores.”

It was after school one day in early July, and Shirayuki Himeji was sitting next to me, her silver hair shaking as she wrote in red pen.

Hearing this reaction, the gorgeous, red-haired, fake rich heiress sitting opposite me lifted her head off the hand it had been resting on. Sarasa Saionji put her hands on the table and leaned forward to see what was going on.

“You already graded it? Let me see… Oh, wow.”

“Hey, you don’t have to look so obviously disgusted…”

“Who wouldn’t be disgusted with scores like these? Twenty-two in English, nineteen in math, thirty-seven in Japanese… Combined with science and history, you scored one hundred and sixteen points across all five subjects. You’d fail for sure if these were real exams, wouldn’t you?”

Her ruby-red eyes narrowed as she gazed at me. Saionji was ruthless with her verbal attacks. Normally, this would develop into a malicious back-and-forth, but given the test results before me—something I couldn’t fake at all—I didn’t have a leg to stand on.

“You’re really that bad at studying, huh? With all the Games you’ve been winning, I thought surely you couldn’t be that stupid.”

“Ugh… Well, what do you want from me? Ever since I moved to the Academy, I’ve been caught up in so many things that I haven’t had any time to study. I don’t know any of this vocab, any of these formulas… Nothing.”

“Oh? You’re talking like you did study a lot back on the mainland.”

“…I apologize.”

“At least you’re honest… But you need to get it together, okay? I’m not holding this study session for you because I want to.”

Saionji shook her head with a sigh, red hair shimmering as she folded her arms atop her chest.

That’s right—my sworn enemy (at least on the surface), the Empress, was here to help me study. She has an unassailable reputation as a Game expert, but she’s also the kind of incomprehensible genius who achieves perfect grades in all her subjects at Ohga. As a tutor, no one could be better.

“But it’s so hard…”

I found myself looking at the ceiling, leaning back in my chair. I was grateful that she was holding this study session for me, of course, but I couldn’t say I was really happy about it. After all, I’ve always had kind of an aversion to the very act of studying.

“I understand how you feel… But unfortunately, there’s no getting around this.”

Himeji, standing next to me, shook her head slightly as she seemed to read my lazy inner thoughts. She looked into my face with clear eyes as she spoke, wearing her usual maid outfit.

“The final exams for first semester are coming up in two weeks… And any student who fails even one class will lose the right to participate in the big summer-break event coming up.”

A few days ago…

“That wraps up my overview of the SFIA summer event.”

Himeji and I had been called to the provost’s office at Eimei School, where we’d been given the rundown by Natsumi Ichinose. She was wearing a business suit and sitting on a soft sofa with her legs elegantly crossed.

SFIA, pronounced “sphere” and short for Summer Festival in the Academy, is the name of the large-scale Game I’d heard mention of several times during the whole DearScript thing I got involved in not long ago. Apparently, it’s an even bigger event than ASTRAL, the Game played in the May Interschools, and it has a huge impact on both individual and school rankings.

The reason for its size and importance has a lot to do with the event’s format.

“I think the thing to focus on here is how everybody is allowed to participate. Unlike ASTRAL, where participants were carefully selected from each ward, SFIA is open to all the quarter-million students of high school age in the Academy. The event is divided into five knockout stages, with the number of students gradually being whittled down as it goes on.”

“Right, Master. Also, if I could humbly add to the guidance given by Ms. Evil Vixen over there, due to its nature as a summertime event, SFIA is also notorious as a stage where new students can make a name for themselves. The majority of the current high-ranking students made their public debut around this time of the year.”

“Heh-heh! Still as prickly with me as ever, huh, Shirayuki? Well, let me counter your additions with some of my own. As I said, this summer event is divided into multiple stages, but on three different years it was cut short before the final because only one school was left in the Game. For all those years, Eimei School was the winner.”

“…O-okay.”

That fierce smile from the provost overwhelmed me as she spoke. Apparently, Eimei once had a Seven Star known as the Devil, who guided them through a golden era where they ranked first for three years in a row. I’ve heard stories about this person before, but it really did sound like they were in a whole other league from the rest of us.

Come to think of it, Yuzu said the summer event always felt so anticlimactic because it ended so fast, hence why she’d been using DearScript to try to get high-ranking students from other wards to level up.

I quietly folded my arms as the thought crossed my mind. My big sister, Yuzuha Shinohara—or Yuzu—was the one in charge of DearScript. It was a series of Games where she’d pretended to be the childhood friend I was looking for. Although the whole thing had ended with a megaton bombshell, it hadn’t led me any closer to finding my friend. And what’s more…it seemed highly likely that Yuzu was the Demon of Eimei everyone was talking about.

“Heh-heh! Well, she was kind of on another dimension. Things might’ve been more interesting if you and the Empress had been around back then… But oh well. Anyway, that’s the event we’re about to see kick off.”

The provost smiled a little as she unconcernedly recrossed her legs, despite the short skirt she was wearing. Then she looked at me again, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.

“So…you know, Shinohara, I think this event is going to be a tough fight for you. After you beat the Empress in DearScript, you now have four different Unique Stars: red, blue, green, and purple. There’s no record of anyone on the island being a Seven Star with four Uniques, and to make matters worse, a Unique Star is the reward for placing first in SFIA, too. That means you’ll have five Uniques if you win… If I was the provost of another ward, I’d do whatever I could to stop you.”

“…Yeah, I’m sure.”

Just being a Seven Star, or a Unique Star holder, was enough to paint a target on your back. I had both, and I also wasted no opportunity to stir up people whenever I could, so I was the one guy everyone was after right now. There was no reason whatsoever not to come after me.

“So that’s why we’re prepared to support you as best we can… But there’s just one problem. A big one, in fact… Basically, Shinohara, SFIA is run by the Event Management Committee, which takes its orders directly from the Academy’s Board of Regents. It’ll be kicking off right after the start of summer break.”

“Okay… And that’s a problem?”

“Of course it is. That’s why I’m bringing it up. If it’s right at the start of summer break, that means it’s after your first-semester finals, right? And on the Academy, the first week of summer break’s devoted to remedial classes if you blow it in the finals… I’ll give it to you straight, Shinohara. If you fail even one exam, you won’t be able to participate in the summer event. Around here, we call that ‘losing in Stage Zero.’ And not to put too fine a point on it, but looking at your academic abilities, you’ll probably…no, you will fail something. Your grades in the Academy entry exam were pathetic enough as it was, and these tests are even harder.”

“What…?!”

The principal’s words, interwoven with a sigh here and there, made me sit up in my chair… So I have to pass all my exams to take part in this event? Is that kind of nonsense even allowed in real life?!

“W-wait a minute, Provost. So am I screwed beyond repair, or what? Can’t you use some of your provost powers or something…?”

“Heh-heh! Rather bold of you, Shinohara, wasting no time at all lobbying for a backroom deal. Yuzuha herself said you’ve always had a conniving mind, and I see she’s right… Of course, it’s not impossible. I futzed around with the numbers in your entry exam, too, remember.”

“So then…?!”

“But it’s different this time. As you know, on the Academy, all tests are administered and scored online through your device. For these finals, your pass-fail status—in other words, your eligibility for the summer event—is automatically sent to the Event Management Committee. In short, you can alter your scores all you want, but there’s no way to hide it if you fail. For this, at least, you’re gonna have to rely on your own brainpower to survive.”

“…”

This unexpected trial left me as dumbfounded as I was dejected. If the constantly self-aggrandizing fake Seven Star fails a class and can’t join a Game as big as this one, it’d be nothing short of a disgrace. Worst-case scenario, it could arouse suspicion and eventually unravel my lies.

But then…

“…Don’t worry, Master,” Himeji said kindly from beside me, standing with her hands held in front of her as gracefully as ever. Her silvery hair swung in the air. “Everything will be fine. By my name as your dedicated maid, I will not allow you to commit an error such as failing a class.”

“I-I’m so glad I can count on you! So what kind of secret plan do you have in mind? Like, some way I can cheat without getting caught?”

“Yes…is the answer I wish I could give you, but Ms. Evil Vixen over there has implemented an extremely stringent anti-cheating system for Eimei. The Company knows all its facets, yet even with that knowledge, it’d be almost impossible for us to rewrite it without being discovered… So instead, we’ll go for a straight-down-the-middle approach. From today until the end of your exams, I will be your maid and tutor, doing whatever I can to teach you what you need to know.”

Her smile was soft, selfless, and without hesitation. Faced with it, I had no other choice but to stop resisting and slowly nod.

So here I was, spending my precious after-school time hitting the books.

SFIA, the big summer event, was coming up in two weeks, and I needed to score high enough in my exams to qualify for it. For someone like me who sucks at studying, that was a pretty tricky hurdle to make it over—but it’s not like I needed to ace everything. I just needed to not fail. I had time and two supersmart people tutoring me. It wasn’t too high of a wall to climb, what with all the help I was getting.

Saionji was here partly due to coincidence and partly out of necessity. We’d been bitching to each other about all sorts of stuff over the phone last night when the topic of the summer event came up. I was joking around about my exams, and she flew over here, practically sweating. “If you fail anything,” she said, “then I’ll look like a complete idiot after you beat me!”

I mean, not that that really matters to me…

Himeji was offering kind, methodical instruction, and Saionji’s guidance was pretty easy to follow as well, even with all the whining in between. I took a glance at them both… It’s been like this all the time lately. I needed to concentrate, but the moment I let my guard down, I could hear my sister speaking to me in DearScript again.

“Hiroto, that first love from childhood you’ve been looking for? You’ve been reunited with her for a while now, you know.”

It was a shocking bombshell from my sister, who had always loved picking on me. The revelation completely froze me up back then… But the meaning behind her words made sense. I’d met “her” after my sister had already moved to the Academy, but Yuzu would come back home during the longer school breaks a lot, so it wasn’t too strange if she saw the two of us together at some point. That, and the fact that Yuzu is now part of the Academy administration, enjoying high-level access privileges to all the data in its servers. It couldn’t be that hard for her to go back through her memories to figure out who my childhood friend was.

If Yuzu says I’ve been with her all along, then naturally, it’s got to be someone I met on this island. Though, of course, just “meeting” someone doesn’t really do a lot to whittle down the list of candidates.

The Second Quest of the Unique Star competition, the story I heard on the Ferris wheel about life back on the mainland… Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Himeji’s and Saionji’s stories both seemed kinda linked to things from my own memory.

That was the thing. From what they’d told me about their past, Saionji had studied under virtual house arrest since she was little, and Himeji was a shy girl who’d almost never gone outside. I, on the other hand, had known a girl just like that, whom I’d taken out and played with and stuff. Factoring in the timing of when they’d come to the Academy, it all linked up pretty well in both cases.

So is one of them my childhood friend? The first love I’ve been looking for all this time…?

Once I started thinking about it, it was impossible to use my head for much of anything else. Just looking at Himeji’s profile made my heart pound. Saionji’s sullen expression looked even cuter to me than usual. The way Himeji brushed her silver hair over her ears, the way Saionji’s ruby eyes stared at me from close up as she leaned forward, leaving herself undefended…

“…Master, are you listening?”

“You better be taking this in, Shinohara.”

…I-I’m listening! I am, really; it’s just…!

What can I say, really? These stray thoughts attacked me at every moment the rest of the day, and it goes without saying that I made next to no progress in my studying.

Two weeks later, I’d somehow managed to pass my final exams—the biggest pressing concern—thanks to the help of Himeji and Saionji… Though, by “pass,” I mean that my final scores had all hovered around fifty points. By the standards of the Academy, anything below forty is considered a failing grade, so I’d just barely scraped by.

Regardless, with the first semester now firmly behind me, the Eimei School—or really, all the schools on the Academy—were going on a long break beginning tomorrow.

“Okay! Now that the exams are over, why don’t we go over next week’s event?”

Shirayuki Himeji, in her familiar maid uniform, set down a cup of tea in front of me. She placed another cup next to it, gave a murmured “Excuse me,” then sat down by my side. After taking a sip of the steaming tea, she turned toward me.

“SFIA is the largest summer event on the island, boasting some two hundred fifty thousand participants—in other words, every high school student in the twenty wards of the Academy. All students are allowed to participate provided they didn’t fail any classes.”

“Yeah, thanks for helping me dodge that…”

“No need to thank me. I was merely doing my duty, Master. Rina did most of the work, as you yourself did, putting in all that effort… But regardless.”

Himeji gave me a breezy smile as she refocused on the topic at hand.

“As SFIA is a large-scale Game with a quarter-million participants, not everything is going to be decided in a single match. The Game is divided into five stages, with a hundred thousand people passing Stage One, ten thousand passing Stage Two, a hundred people passing Stage Three, and so forth. The competition plays out between individual students, but the final battle is usually a team-based contest, so cooperation with your fellow students is essential.”

“All right. So you’re competing mainly for yourself, but it’s still basically a team competition in the end. And whoever wins gets a Unique Star?”

“That’s right, Master. Should you win, the orange Unique Star on offer at SFIA would be your fifth. At this rate, you becoming an actual Seven Star is no longer a fairy tale.”

“Yeah… Which is why I’m sure people are gonna be more desperate than ever to stop me.”

I lifted my right hand to my mouth, organizing my thoughts.

“By the way, what’s the flip side of this? Like, what would happen if I lost? If it costs you a star, I’d assume a lot of students would refuse to participate.”

“A very keen observation, Master. As you surmised, serious competition involving stars changing hands does not begin until Stage Four. The first three stages are a sort of warm-up, where you won’t lose a star even if you get out. If you’re good enough to appear in the inter-ward events, it’s a given that you’ll survive these. Losing won’t cost any stars, but dropping out early will damage your reputation, so you will need to be careful about that.”

“…Yeah, that makes sense.”

I shrugged and agreed with Himeji’s dispassionate advice. She was right. If I’m calling myself a Seven Star (whether it’s true or not), trying to skirt competition was never going to be allowed.

“But it ain’t gonna be that easy.”

A listless voice that sounded like its owner had just woken up came from the device on the table. On the video chat was Kagaya from the Company. She was probably lying on the floor in some corner of her place, one knee propped up, with piles of crap surrounding her on all sides.

Kagaya looked at the files on another tablet in her hand as she continued.

“If it’s the same as other years, they’ll announce the rules for each stage just before each one begins—usually the day before. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but in the case of Hiro here, you can’t afford to lose, right? We all got a lot of prep work to do in not a whole lot of time, so we probably wanna get the advantage in each stage.”

“What sort of advantage?”

“Well, Master, SFIA has what is called a high-ranking bonus. If you perform exceptionally well in a stage, you’ll be awarded some sort of advantage in the next one. Your strategy, then, will mainly revolve around getting every high-ranking bonus you can…which for us, of course, means cheating our way to each one.”

“…Ah.”

I nodded back at Himeji as she smiled a bit. In other words, our plan for SFIA, this tournament where we won’t even know the rules until the day before, was to tap into the Company’s powers and cheat like mad to gain every edge available to us.

“But,” Himeji said, her hair slightly shaking in the air, “since this Game involves most high schoolers on the island, we have to deal with a great number of uncertainties. The usual top players will all be there, along with some dark horses that might be hoping to use this event to make a name for themselves. That’s why I think it’s also time for the Company to improve its manpower.”

“Improve our manpower? …Oh, you mean Shiina?” I murmured, nodding in agreement.

That’s right. The provost herself had raised the idea of bringing Shiina into the Company. Tsumugi Shiina was a purehearted, reclusive genius who lived in her own fantasy world, and while she’d made a total mess of ASTRAL back in the May Interschools, her talent was beyond question.

“In terms of skills, I think she could contribute pretty much immediately,” Himeji said. “We’ll need to address her shyness at least a little bit, but even with that quirk of hers, she’s more than qualified for the job. However, the one hitch is that we will need to inform Ms. Shiina of the truth behind at least some of your lies, Master.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing…,” I said, scratching my cheek with a frown.

Of course, it only made sense to tell her. The Company is a team of people assisting me, propping me up as a Seven Star, even though I have no right at all to the title. Sharing my lies was a prerequisite to hiring her. Himeji and the provost had been with me since the beginning, and thanks to a series of coincidences, Saionji was now a coconspirator. But revealing my lies to someone else voluntarily? It was the first time I’d been confronted with that necessity since coming to this island—a very dangerous bridge to cross.

“I mean, we don’t need to divulge everything, though, do we? I think it’d work if we phrased it along the lines of, like, me having this secret organization working behind the scenes to ensure my reign as a Seven Star continues. That’d hide the lie well enough, and I’m sure Shiina would accept it at face value.”

“Perhaps… But that does not particularly hide the fact that it’s a group meant to help you cheat, does it?”

“Well, no. But I really don’t think she’ll be morally opposed to that. She was cheating all up and down ASTRAL earlier. I think she finds it kind of cool to play the bad guy, even.”

“Hmm… You may be right. That does seem like a possibility, thinking back on it.”

Himeji nodded, a fingertip placed gently against her lips. We knew from past experience that Tsumugi Shiina was the sort of girl who got lost in her own imagination. The existence of the Company—a real-life secret society—was bound to pique her interest. Plus, it sounded like she wasn’t much interested in being a full-time high school student anyway, so…

“…Yeah. Sounds like the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. We’ll face a lot more competition than usual this time, so we should probably have her join sooner rather than later.”

“I agree,” said Himeji. “Although, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my personal concerns about it…”

“Like what?”

That sounded a little worrying, but the next moment, Himeji’s expression was as cool as always, and she shook her head.

“No, never mind that, Master. I will contact Ms. Evil Vixen at once.”

Then, about an hour later…

“Huh, what?! Really?! Are you serious?! Wowww!!”

Shiina, who’d come to my place after the provost reached out to her, was absolutely overjoyed by the news. Her mismatched jet-black and crimson eyes sparkled as she hugged me with one hand and clutched her Cerberus plushie in the other. Seeing Shiina looking up at me, her gaze glittering, Himeji sighed and let out a quiet, “I knew it…”

“Heh-heh! Wow, Hiroto! Thanks a whole lot! I love you!!”

“Why are you thanking me? You really like the Company that much?”

“Well, yeah! Having a secret society is cool, and cheating your way to victory seems like a lot of fun, and I’m blown away by all of it, but like, if I join the Company, that means I can play in Games with you, right? And I won’t have to go to school or become a student? That’s soooo great! …Is that why you invited me, though?”

“No, um, that’s just a coincidence…”

“Hee-hee!”

Shiina was completely oblivious to my excuses as she rubbed her head against me, and I gave up, flashing her a wry smile. Though, I admit, that idea had crossed my mind. Something illegal like this was the only way for a shut-in like Shiina to participate in a Game.

“Well, as jealous as it might make Shirayuki here, I guess this marks the new structure of the Company!”

Thus, with the start of SFIA breathing down our necks, we had a new member in our group.

“Ladieeeees and geeeeentlemen! At long last, it’s the day you’ve all been waiting for! Monday, July twenty-fifth, the opening day for the Summer Festival on the Academy! Are you all ready to rock, people? Are you all fired up for me?! Because from now until the end of the event, you’ll be so excited, so entertained, you won’t have a single moment to rest! And I’ll be along with you for the whole ride—Suzuran Kazami from Libra, providing commentary from start to finish!”

“““Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”””

“Thanks a lot! I appreciate your support! Now, let’s get this opening ceremony underway, shall we? First, I’ll go over the rules for the event!”

“““Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!”””

That morning, Himeji and I were having a slightly early breakfast and watching the opening ceremony streaming live on IslandTube from the First Ward’s event hall. The girl jumping around onstage was Suzuran Kazami, a second-year student from Ohga who we’ve come to know a little bit over time. She has a boyish look, with hair sticking out of her baseball cap and an armband reading Ace Reporter around one arm. Between her hosting and refereeing duties, she gets a lot of screen time around here, making her more popular than a lot of actual celebrities on the island.

“It’s finally starting…,” I muttered to myself, licking my lips at the breakfast Himeji had made. It was the classic Japanese setup, with rice, miso soup, and grilled salmon—maybe not the sort of thing someone might typically have in a Western-style mansion like this, but still delicious.

Himeji nodded back, her hair swaying gently as she watched the same screen. “Yes. SFIA formally kicks off with this ceremony, then Stage One begins in about two hours. The rules are as we discussed last night.”

She slid a finger right across her device. The projected screen showing the opening ceremony was shunted to the side, and in its place appeared a slideshow created by Himeji outlining the rules of Stage One.

SFIA Stage 1: Random Chase

Each player is given the IDs of ten devices, which serve as their targets.

These IDs are assigned at random; however, none of them belong to students from the player’s own school. The distance between the player and their targets is accessible in real time via their device.

“Capture” a target by taking a photo of them using your device’s camera. Players who successfully capture at least one target within the time limit are allowed to advance to Stage 2. For the sake of privacy, photos taken as part of the capturing process will not be saved.

As mentioned above, Random Chase has a time limit. The event runs from nine AM to five PM on July 25, and capturing any target within this time frame will count as beating the Game. Players who catch multiple different targets will be awarded a high-ranking bonus in Stage 2 of the event, depending on the number caught (up to five targets). There is no penalty for being captured by another player.

Only one Ability may be installed on devices for this stage.

That was the long and short of it. In terms of format, it was pretty much a basic treasure-hunt type Game. You find a player carrying a target device, take their picture, and then you’re done. Earning a high-ranking bonus looks pretty exhausting, but getting past Stage One itself doesn’t seem too tricky. Between the large number of participants and the amount of movement that would be going on all across the island, the whole thing really did have much more of a festival atmosphere than the May Interschools.

“As stated in the rules,” Himeji said, her clear blue eyes focused upon me, “Random Chase runs on a time limit, not a numerical quota. The expected win rate for this stage is forty percent—in other words, they’re anticipating about one hundred thousand people completing this Game. Given these rules, there aren’t many ways to keep other players from capturing you, nor is there any real need to, so external interference is not a major worry. I believe a lot of students will be able to beat this stage without any sort of elaborate preparation. For these reasons, this stage likely functions more as a way to gauge how serious participants are about winning SFIA.”

“Probably,” I agreed. “You should be able to clear it if you give it any sort of a decent try, so I guess this is meant to filter out the casuals just playing for fun… But how’s the high-ranking bonus going to work, then?”

“About that. An element of luck is involved when selecting an Ability…yes? However, that is not the case for you, Master. As you did in Ms. Shiina’s debut match, you can simply overwhelm them.”

Himeji had a bemused smile. True, at first glance, the Game seemed to involve a lot of troublesome details—but with the hack the Company was providing us, there was nothing tricky about it at all. All we would have to do, really, is work out the target IDs of the people we’re chasing, find out where they’re going, and get there before them. Naturally, everyone will be constantly moving around, so we won’t be able to pinpoint people’s destinations down to the millimeter, but if we could trace the targets of our targets, and then all their targets as well, we could use all that data to triangulate locations with pretty good accuracy.

“By the way, are we gonna have Shiina providing support all by herself today?”

“No, I think that’d be throwing her too far into the deep end. Besides, Ms. Shiina lives next door to the provost’s office, and taking the required equipment in there is problematic for a few reasons. Today, she’ll be working with Ms. Kagaya from here.”

“Uh… Is that okay? I mean, it would be one thing if it was you, but Shiina hasn’t properly met Kagaya yet.”

“There is that, yes. Which is why, if it leads to problems, I’ll have them communicate via their devices instead. That shouldn’t impede the support they give you, Master… But either way, we’re all a part of the same group now, so I personally hope we can all get along.”

“…Yeah.”

There was nothing to worry about, then. After one final check of the rules, we decided to get ready and head out.

About four hours had passed since SFIA Stage One: Random Chase began, and Himeji and I were making excellent progress in the Game.

“Nice, that’s another one! Uh, that was Miss Maid’s target, so you’ll be up next, Hiroto! Hmm… Um… Got it! This way! Hiroto, turn right and run real fast!”

“Let’s see… Hiro, you’re going to the Second Ward next. You’ll have to hurry a bit if you wanna make it in time.”

“…The Second Ward? But the nearest ID looks like it’s headed for the Fifteenth…”

“Not that guy—this one! He’s gonna spin around and zip back toward you, so he’s the one you want! Get a move on!”

“Hang on. Um… Oh, okay. It’s not the guy you’re talking about, but someone else is gonna be going right through the Second Ward, Hiro. It’s kind of a complicated path, but you’ll definitely run into him.”

“Ohh… Okay. Thanks a lot,” I said to the voices of Shiina and Kagaya in my earpiece.

Seeing how things were going, it was clear that Shiina’s support was working pretty well for me. Her calculation and analytical skills were amateurish, but she seemed to have a knack for figuring out which target was moving where. It was almost like she’d picked up a sense for it playing video games. Her genius-level intuition meant she wasn’t much help if you wanted step-by-step instructions, but Kagaya’s interpretation of her insights helped make sense of things.

“I gotta say, Hiro, this girl is amazing. She didn’t pay any attention to me at first, which kinda bummed me out, but when I gave her the map, her eyes just lit up!”

“The map?”

“Yeah, a map that shows the current location of all the players in the Academy. Normally, we’d narrow the analysis down to just the current target, or at least the target’s targets, but Tsum-Tsum here can keep track of everything just by looking at it. I can’t believe it! She works so hard, and she’s so cute, too.”

“What does her cuteness have to do with anything?”

I shook my head a bit as I listened to Kagaya heap praise on Shiina… Still, a map that could continually update the locations of 250,000 people in real time? It took a crazy amount of skill to both make and use something like that. And thanks to that, Himeji and I had each caught one target and fulfilled the minimum requirement for beating this stage not even half an hour after it began. By now, the time was almost half up, and I’d already captured three people.

With all this time to spare, I took the opportunity to take in the sights as I walked around. It really did feel like an Academy-wide festival. Various stalls lined the main streets of each ward, and portable mikoshi shrines were being paraded around in certain areas by large groups of people. Other players were perusing the stalls as they pursued their targets, and everywhere you went, there was this electrifying feel of being in the middle of something huge.

“Ah… Fwaaah…”

But just then, I heard a drowsy-sounding yawn in my earpiece. I couldn’t tell who it was for a moment, but the slightly panicked “…Fwah?” that followed was definitely Shiina.

“Ah, um, Kagaya…? If you, uh, take a nap right now… I mean, the Game’s still…”

“Huh? Oh, it’s fine, Tsum-Tsum, it’s fine! You’re really cute, so you can handle things by yourself without me. I’m just gonna have a little nap, okay? …Zzz…zzz…”

“…?! H-Hiroto! Kagaya’s fallen asleep! She fell asleep hugging me! Wh-what should I do?!”

“Mmm… So smooth… And it smells so good…”

“…!!”

Kagaya seemed to be rubbing cheeks with Shiina and happily talking in her sleep, while the ever-shy Shiina gave muffled yelps as she tried to escape. Listening to all this through my earpiece, I had the sense I was eavesdropping on something less than appropriate, and Shiina anxiously trying to keep her voice down didn’t help matters.

“Uh, hey, Himeji, do you have any way to wake up Kagaya?”

“Ah yes… Let me take care of it.”

Himeji nodded after considering my request for a moment, then put an earpiece on, lifted her hair over it, and spoke in her usual cool tone of voice.

“Ms. Shiina, this is Master’s personal maid, Shirayuki Himeji. May I speak to you for a moment?”

“…! Miss Maid…? Wh-what’s up?”

“In anticipation of something like this, I brewed some black coffee and put it in the refrigerator. One whiff of it should wake up Ms. Kagaya, so could you try that for me, please?”

“The fridge? Um, okay, sure!”

I heard a slightly violent-sounding rustle along with Kagaya’s sleepy mumblings and assumed Shiina had escaped from her clutches long enough to reach the kitchen. After a few more seconds, I heard footsteps indicating that Shiina was coming back. Then…

“Hngh?! This eye-opening bitterness… Is this Shirayuki’s homemade coffee?!”

“Wow, she really did wake up! Thanks, Miss Maid!”

“You are welcome. Ms. Kagaya is generally unable to take care of herself, but she’s extremely capable, so go ahead and use as much of that as you need.”

“O-okay. Um… Also…”

Shiina stammered something I couldn’t quite make out. Himeji and I exchanged puzzled looks, waiting for her to continue, when we heard a quiet sound—a cute little rumble from her stomach.

“…! N-no! It’s not what you think!”

She must have heard it herself, because she began to vehemently deny it.

“That wasn’t me just now! It was my familiar Lloyd’s stomach growling! It’s not like I was so nervous about meeting a new person that I couldn’t eat anything all day! And it’s definitely not like I was so relieved she was super kind that I suddenly got hungry!”

“…Hee-hee. I see.”

Himeji gave a gentle smile, hearing Shiina’s excuse—or, really, her confession.

“Now, Ms. Shiina,” she said, her silver hair swaying, “I know this is quite an imposition to ask while you’re hungry, but would you mind taking another look in the refrigerator? I actually have a rice omelet in there for you on the second shelf from the top. Put it in the microwave for two minutes, and it should be ready.”

“H…huh?! What did you say, Miss?!”

“…? I said, the rice omelet is—ah, I see… I meant to say that I have a demonic offering for you, drenched in fresh blood, on the second shelf from the top.”

“A bloody offering?!”

“…”

I was pretty sure the “fresh blood” was ketchup, but if that got the point across to Shiina, then great. It sounded like she immediately heated up the rice omelet, and even just through the earphone, I could clearly picture the sort of expression she was making.

“Wowww…! You made this, Miss?! For me?!”

“Yes, of course. You are our teammate, Ms. Shiina—or should I just call you Tsumugi? Regardless, this is the least I can do.”

“Teammate…teammate, teammate… Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!”

Shiina’s voice had already been brimming with emotion, but it suddenly sounded like she wasn’t able to contain her joy. The reaction seemed to come from the bottom of her heart, and Himeji and I couldn’t help but smile.

But then…

Hmm…?

Ka-chak. I spun around, reacting to a faint noise that sounded like a camera shutter. There I saw a couple I didn’t know, a boy and a girl pointing their devices in my direction. They must’ve noticed my gaze, because they sheepishly grinned at me, then went on their way.

Did I get captured just now? Wait, but…

I gently put a finger to my right ear, getting a slight sense that something was wrong… In Stage One, there was no penalty for being captured by another player. There was still a chance someone could use an Ability to attack me, though, so I was sure I’d asked the Company to keep a lookout for that sort of thing.

In response to my concern, Kagaya—who was now fully awake—murmured apologetically.

“Sorry, Hiro. Looks like those two didn’t come up on the Company’s search… They’re probably using an Ability to avoid that sort of thing.”

“An Ability to avoid searches? There’s no point to that, though, is there?”

“Not really. You’re not penalized if you get captured, so there’s no particular need to defend yourself. They don’t seem to be high-ranking players, either… What’s going on?” mumbled Kagaya ominously.

“…”

Even Shiina, busy stuffing herself with that rice omelet in the background, seemed slightly disturbed. But there was no harm done, and no point thinking about it now that they’d already left.

Still, though, it felt like something was starting to move around me.

Despite this oddity during the Game, Random Chase proved to be no great challenge, thanks to the help of Shiina and the rest of the Company. By the time the end of the Game rolled around at five in the afternoon, both Himeji and I had captured five players, unlocking the best possible high-ranking bonus for Stage Two. Apparently, not a lot of players managed to do that, so it got reported on Libra’s official channel and everything. (Though Saionji and Kururugi hit five people, too, of course.)

With the first stage of SFIA now behind us, around 40 percent of the 250,000-plus participants had made it to the next stage—98,520, to be exact. The number had gone from six digits to five, but there was no doubt all the top-ranked players breezed through it just like I had.

And what’s more…

“—Sorry, but I won this round.”

I was already making good progress in Stage Two, Rate Radar.

The rules for this Game had only been released last night, and at first glance, it looked like a really simple one. Players bought weapons with in-Game currency, then competed among themselves to see who had the strongest one. The twist here, though, was that the “force” of each weapon didn’t strictly depend on what you purchased.

SFIA Stage 2: Rate Radar

Each player possesses one or more weapons. Battles in Rate Radar are fought simply by comparing the strength of each weapon.

Weapons can be one of six types: sword, spear, hammer, gun, bow, or magic, and one of four elements: earth, water, fire, or wind. When purchasing a weapon, players are free to choose any combination of type and element they want (e.g. fire/spear, wind/bow).

At the beginning of the Game, there is no difference in performance between any of the weapons. Their strength is fixed, and each weapon costs 10 points. These “points” are Rate Radar’s in-Game currency. Each player initially receives 15 points; however, players who captured more than one player in Stage 1 will be awarded 5 bonus points for each additional player captured.

When the Game begins, players purchase a single starting weapon. This is the moment when the “rarity” of the weapons is determined. The fewer weapons of a specific type or with a specific element, the higher the rarity. This rarity also serves as the strength of a weapon (the rarer a weapon, the stronger it is). Thus, the power of each weapon changes based on the ratio of weapons held by all players.

Weapons can be sold and purchased from the Shop available on players’ devices. The selling/buying prices are linked to their rarity in real time, so the rarer (stronger) a weapon is, the higher the price, and vice versa. Players can also spend 3 points to find out a weapon’s current rarity and ranking (its strength compared to all other weapons).

As mentioned above, battles with players from other wards are conducted by comparing the strength of your weapons. Once players select the weapon they will use in battle (only one at a time), their current rarities are revealed, and the player with the rarer weapon wins. Each player begins battle with 5 HP; winning a battle heals 1 HP, and losing a battle costs 1 HP. The Game is cleared if your HP reaches 10 points, and failed if it reaches 0.

A maximum of ten thousand people can win Rate Radar, and once this number is reached, no one else can proceed to Stage 3. If this condition is not met by five PM, the Game will be paused and restarted at nine AM the next day. The first hundred players to beat the Game will gain a high-ranking bonus for Stage 3.

Three Abilities may be installed on devices for this stage.

So basically this was an arm wrestle between a huge number of people. You needed to use information about other players’ battles and your allies to figure out whether your weapon was strong or not, while finding beatable-looking opponents to fight. If your weapon was too weak, you’d need to swap it for another one, but strong weapons wouldn’t be cheap. On the other hand, if you had a weak, common weapon, its rarity might go up as other players got rid of theirs.

“Hmm…”

Compared to Random Chase, it seemed like the strategy element had gone way up. For example, you could manipulate weapon rarities by colluding with students from your ward, and in addition to buying and selling weapons, you could also use the Shop to sell your own HP, literally chipping away at your life for a little extra money. I thought most people would want to use Abilities to check a weapon’s rarity or work with friends to manipulate the market, but that felt like too cautious a strategy to me. It might guarantee a winning record, but it just wasn’t fast enough. If I wanted that high-ranking bonus for Stage Three, I couldn’t rely solely on battles I knew I’d win.

Which is why…

“You were right, Master… The most powerful weapons are ones with no element at all.”

Yes. Here in Rate Radar, my strategy was focused around a special Ability called Erase. This allowed me to erase the data in a single specialized target, which in this Game meant the type or element of a weapon. Using it twice, I’d been able to create a one-of-a-kind “none/none” weapon, the rarest and most powerful of all. This, of course, was impossible under normal play conditions—in other words, without cheating. A weapon’s type and element play an important role in the rules of the Game, so normally you’d never be allowed to mess with them. That said, I’d had the Company hack into this part of the code, then used †Jet-Black Wings† to stop it from displaying the weapon’s name and strength.

I nodded back at Himeji. “Yeah, that’s my fourth win so far. I have 9 HP right now, so the next fight should be my last. I haven’t heard about anyone beating this stage yet, so I oughtta be able to snag the high-ranking bonus again.”

“Yes. At this rate, we might be able to enjoy lunch back at home.”

Himeji sounded relieved, and she glanced at the clock on her device. It read 11:42. We were going at a pretty quick pace, but there was no real need to rush this.

“…Whoa! H-Hiroto Shinohara?!”

So I decided to challenge a player I saw on my way to the train station. His eyes widened when he saw the strongest in the Academy before him, but he must’ve been pretty confident about his weapon, because he immediately smiled and took out his device. “You’re gonna regret challenging me!” he said as he invoked some sort of Ability.

“Okay, okay, my tuuurn! I got this one, Hiroto! Um, your opponent’s using the all-powerful Malevolent Flame Blade—which you might call a fire/sword weapon! I think he’s messing with the rarity to make it a whole lot stronger, but it’ll never be as rare as a none/none, so you’re a-okay here! There’s no way you’ll lose!”

…Roger that.

I couldn’t tell if Shiina was giving me advice or cheering me on, but regardless, I picked my attribute-free weapon and ended the match in no time at all. That was my fifth win, meaning I had 10 HP, satisfying the victory conditions. I’d need to wait for Libra to tabulate the official results, but I seriously doubted that a hundred people had cleared the Game before me.

But as I was thinking that…

“Are you Hiroto Shinohara?”

“Hmm?”

I slowly turned around, tentatively wary of the voice behind me.

Standing there was a girl I didn’t recognize. She was wearing an Eimei School uniform, and judging by her slightly childish facial features and tone of voice, I was guessing she was a first-year student. What caught my eye the most was her long, flowing black hair, which fell past her waist and almost touched her thighs. She cut a sharp figure, had great poise, and, on the whole, was remarkably beautiful. Her lips were pursed in serious expression, too. Overall, she gave off a “class president” sort of vibe.

“Ugh…”

She took a small step back, hugging herself with her arms, then looked reproachfully at me from a short distance away.

“Wh-what are you doing ogling my body? I don’t remember giving you permission to do that.”

“…Do you always accuse everyone you meet of being a perv? You could at least tell me what your name is first.”

“Oh… Right, perhaps that was my fault… Then let me start over.”

Surprisingly enough, the black-haired girl admitted she was in the wrong. She placed her right hand on her chest, atop what appeared to be a star emblem of some sort, and executed a graceful bow. Despite her initial aggression, she was now being very polite.

“I am honored to meet you, Shinohara. And you as well, Himeji. I am Mari Minakami, from high school Class 1-A at the Eimei School. I wished to talk to you today because I have a question for you.”

“Me? What, are you lost or something?”

“Nothing like that. Um… You’re cheating, aren’t you?”

“…Huh?”

I reacted a little too late to the fastball. I don’t think my nervousness was showing on my face, but Minakami kept on going anyway.

“I had some suspicions before now, but after watching that match, I’m quite sure of it… You see, I’ve installed an Ability that lets me examine the rarity of weapons. According to that, the fire/sword weapon your opponent had just now was ranked first in rarity when you fought him. He was also using an Ability that further enhanced it, so he should’ve been able to win. However, he lost to your weapon, which is invisible to me. Don’t you find that strange?”

“Oh, that’s what you wanted to ask? Sure, maybe it looks weird from your point of view, but for all you know, I could’ve been using the same fire/sword weapon he had. Or maybe my Variable Control skill outclassed his in level. You ever think about that?”

“Yes, of course. But that’s a deceptive argument, don’t you think? What you bring up are mere possibilities. Wouldn’t it be far more natural to simply assume that you’re cheating instead?”

Minakami responded to my rebuttal with another shot, never abandoning her dignified stance. Her gaze was accusatory…or rather, showed her utter contempt of me. I didn’t know what was going on with this girl, but it was clear she believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was cheating.

“…I hate lies,” she continued quietly. “Lies, fraud, cheating—I hate all of it. I mean, it’s really bad to lie. There’s nothing right about it. You shouldn’t do it, right? I just don’t understand why people allow things like that to go on… And you, Shinohara, you smell like a liar to me… It really is exactly like he said.”

“…Who?”

“Our proud leader… You’ll understand soon enough. I’m sure even you will.”

With a snicker, Minakami took her device out of her breast pocket. She checked the time on the home screen, then turned her attention back to me.

“Right after this, Shinohara, at around noon, we’re gonna see something pretty neat happen. You’ll want to keep an eye on IslandTube.”

“What, are you guys trying to set something up? Because I already completed Stage Two just now.”

“Oh, that’s fine. Besides, unlike you, we’d never do anything villainous… I’ll see you in the next stage, Shinohara.”

Minakami’s attitude remained resolute as she wove those words, and then she bowed, her flowing black hair and the skirt of her uniform fluttering as she walked off.

Himeji let out a soft sigh as she watched her leave. Even Minakami’s receding back conveyed her fortitude.

“Not very nice, was she, Master? Accusing you of cheating? Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s mostly those of us in the Company doing the cheating for you.”

“I think that probably amounts to the same thing in their eyes… But it’s trouble, for sure.”

I sighed as I looked toward the direction in which Mari Minakami had disappeared. Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’ve been suspected. I was an instant Seven Star overlord the moment I came to this island, so I’d been a target of envy and mistrust practically from day one. But here I had a girl claiming to have some shadowy group backing her. And in a large-scale Game with a lot of potential enemies, having this extra stuff to worry about didn’t bode well for me.

“And she said something was gonna go down at noon—”

“H-Hiro! Hiro! It’s an emergency! Open up IslandTube right now!”

My train of thought was interrupted by the voice in my ear. Kagaya was pretty overexcitable by default, but she sounded almost panicked right now. She kept on saying “Just do it!!” to all my questions, so I opted to quickly switch apps on my device.

A moment later, I had the IslandTube feed up. It showed a male student wearing a uniform I didn’t recognize, sitting calmly at a desk with a gentle smile. Behind him stood a quiet-looking girl and a much more muscular man. The girl had on the same style of uniform as the guy sitting in front of her, and taking a closer look, I saw they all had the same six-pointed star emblem on their chests that I’d seen on Minakami.

“An emergency broadcast…”

“…presented by the Hexagram?”

Himeji and I both frowned as we looked at our devices.

“Good afternoon, everybody.”

The guy behind the desk began to speak, his voice just as soft as I’d expected based on his appearance. His eyes were narrowed at the camera, an easy smile on his face, and I could tell he had the sort of kind personality that drew people to him.

He continued smoothly, intermingling his speech with relaxed hand gestures.

“I would like to thank everyone watching despite this coming to you in the middle of Stage Two of SFIA. What I have to say won’t take long, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d hear me out. If you don’t know who I am, my name is Kaoru Saeki. I’m a third-year at the Suisei School in the Academy’s Second Ward, and my rank is Six Star, which includes two Unique Stars. The Suisei School is not particularly active in event battles, so I think this may be the first time some of you have heard my name.

“Now, let me take the opportunity to introduce my group. We are the Hexagram, an organization officially sanctioned by the Academy. I, Kaoru Saeki, serve as its leader, and the nature of our business can be summed up in a single phrase: We are here to carry out justice.”

“…Justice?”

I couldn’t help but repeat the word. He’s going on about justice? It’s pretty unusual to hear someone use a word as trite as that outside of superhero comics. I guess Saeki was receiving feedback along those lines in the IslandTube live chat, because he smiled a bit as he looked at his device.

“Ha-ha! I see the comments are already pretty polarized. Yes, if this is the first you’ve ever heard of this, you might see it as worthy of ridicule. But to those people, I say to take a deep breath and look at what’s going on around you… In particular, look at the reactions of the older students who were around to see last year. Doesn’t that make you a bit more curious?

“Now, I promise you I am not saying this due to some half-hearted delusion. Since being formally recognized by the Academy, we have actually built up quite a list of accomplishments for ourselves. Last year, we exposed a group that was developing illegal Abilities on a schoolwide scale, rounded up certain people who were putting low-ranked students in debt and treating them like slaves, and exposed the fraud perpetrated by a certain Six Star. This was all the work of the Hexagram; you can look it up in the island archives later if you like. I believe these results make it clear just how seriously we take our claim to be on the side of justice.”

There was no sense of urgency to Saeki’s speech. His words did seem convincing enough on their own, and I glanced over at Himeji.

“Yes…”

She seemed to ponder something for a moment, then nodded, her silver hair swaying gently in the air.

“It’s true. There have been a number of incidents in the past where a group calling themselves the Hexagram uncovered a serious crime. We haven’t heard anything from them for a while, so I thought they disbanded, but…”

“Ahhh, right. I understand there were rumors we were no longer active, but I assure you they have no basis in reality. The Hexagram is simply an organization that makes a move only when necessary. And now, I suppose, is one of those occasions.”

Saeki fell quiet, his eyes narrowing even more… I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Well, not a feeling, exactly; after my encounter with Minakami, it was more like a certainty. But there was no stopping this livestream now. Kaoru Saeki stared straight at me through the screen (or at least it felt that way) as he continued, a subtle smile on his lips.

“Now, to business. Let me get straight to the point—the reason we in the Hexagram have stepped in this time is to expose the fraud of Hiroto Shinohara, purportedly the strongest student of the Academy.”

“…!!”

“…Ah yes, I can understand if some of you are stunned to hear this. But didn’t all of you have at least a little bit of doubt? Shinohara had only just transferred to the island when he beat the undefeated Empress, moving up to Seven Star status that very same day—a feat that had never happened before in the history of the Academy. It was strange, without a doubt.

“So we decided to thoroughly investigate this situation. We examined every detail of the Fourth Ward Challenge Shinohara took part in, as well as the May Interschools and all the other Games he has participated in. After our investigation, we were convinced: Hiroto Shinohara is a cheater beyond all doubt. He is evil, and as defenders of justice, we must lay down our judgment upon this evil. All his victories, all his glories, are nothing but lies and fabrications.

“Of course, I’m sure many of you aren’t ready to take me at my word. I fully understand that—which is why I have personally stepped up to ensure he is judged at this event.

“And now, I would like to address Hiroto Shinohara personally. We in the Hexagram are keeping a close eye on you, and trust me, we will not allow you to cheat your way through the SFIA event. If you are defeated—that is, if you lose because you’ve been denied access to your cheats—this would be the clearest proof of all that you’ve been relying on cheating from the moment you set foot on the Academy, wouldn’t it? Naturally, if you prove capable of winning without these underhanded tactics, we will admit our mistake and give you a proper apology… But I don’t believe that’s what we’ll see.

“Let me be very clear: Your cheating won’t work on us, and during this multistage Game, your lies and fraud will be exposed for all the world to see. This I swear by the name of the Hexagram.”

With tens of thousands of viewers watching him, a faint, self-assured smile crossed Saeki’s face. My mind raced as I heard this declaration of war handed down through my screen.

…So it’s an Academy-approved organization that “carries out justice”? And they’re taking action to expose my lies?! What the hell? I’m suddenly in huge trouble, aren’t I…?!

I kept it cool on the surface, but I was already exploding with panic inside.