"Oh well, it was pleasant to see you again. Our car is waiting for us, though, so I think we should go…" said the long-haired guy and started walking away. At that moment, Takeshi suddenly shouted:

"We… We are going to participate in this year's tournament…"

The 'villains' stopped. The short one looked at Takeshi with a slight surprise in his eyes. The taller person, still as calm as ever, said:

"Really? You do? But you need at least three members to participate, are you… Ah," suddenly, he gazed at Shirogane and me and laughed.

"So the first-years are going to participate? Even though there's just a month before the first stage… How very interesting. Good! That means that we can fight again!" said the guy in a very positive voice, waved his hand, and walked away.

While he was leaving, Takeshi was attentively staring at his back.

I did it too, reading his profile:

[Str: D-

End: D-

Int: B

SP:

Kendo: C]

…

For a long time after the had duo vanished on the road down the mountain, we were still standing in the same place. In silence. Various thoughts, related and unrelated to the subject matter were flashing in my head. Now I knew why the shorty was so looking so pissed. I would have been angry too, were I had to ascend a mountain just to exchange a few words.

At last, Takeshi started speaking:

"Sorry, but… I can't do it today… I have to… Maybe we'll go later," he said and started walking back to the school building. Should I stop him for the sake of my mission? No, just by looking at him I knew, that I won't be able to. He was looking too depressed and full of some strange determination at the same time. My words won't affect him at all.

Takeshi went away.

Suddenly, Shirogane, who was still standing there said:

"I knew these two".

"So who they are?"

"They are from Ryugo school … The one with long hair is Nishima Yu. In the last year's tournament, he almost won on the first stage of our district. He's very famous, people call him 'The Great Dragon'. He also has a hundred thousand subscribers on Instavid… He's a prodigy.

During the last year's tournament, he and his school eliminated our teams.

"Hm."

"They did it with ease. Our guys couldn't win even one battle. Ryugo became champions, yet they weren't allowed to participate in the second stage… Nishima, their Captain, was disqualified for a year — 'cause he badly injured a guy from the opposite team…"

Badly injured…

An image of Takeshi with his broken hand flashed in my mind.

Soon after, Siro said something about having the stuff to do and left.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I was surprised.

He even bothered to come up with an excuse.

What a polite guy.

…

I came back early to the dorm. No one was there, yet. Taking off my shoes, I entered the silent hallway.

My gaze suddenly fell on the door with the number 3 on it.

Aoi was living in the first room. Number five belonged to Murakami. There was no room number four in the dorm, probably because it was considered unlucky, and at last, in the third room lived the mysterious girl that Lu told me about… I've yet to see her myself, but I had a feeling that we were bound to meet sooner or later.

After returning to my room, I read the magazine. I thought that it would be a good thing to check it regularly, as a habit.

[Score: 11

SpoCon:

Genre Score: 10/30]

I had been granted 10 points for advancing my strengths and endurance. I could earn 5 more if it wasn't for the villains who had disrupted my friendly event… Either way, I still had an entire month ahead of me, so it shouldn't be too hard to reach the required number.

At least I hoped so.

I thought for some time about what I'm going to do next. Then I put the magazine away and read a book on my phone. An hour later, I heard light steps from the hallway. Seems like Aoi has come back. After some time I heard a loud and always energetic voice that belonged to Murakami.

The evening was approaching.

I was lucky with my dinner. Once again, Aoi has brought the leftovers from her restaurant and proposed to share

I was glad, and yet at the same time, it came to me at that moment that I had made a mistake.

My relationship with Lu was too good. And that's bad because I couldn't use the 'Tsun' side of her to earn points. Usually, in this kind of story, the MC and the tsundere girl have a rough start caused by some accident. Like when I had 'accidentally' seen her in the toilet. But that wasn't enough.

Thinking about it now, I should have been the one to take her room before Lu's appearance. It would have been by accident, and I would have given her a bad impression — so, everything would have been the way it usually is in the stories. However, instead of me, it was Murakami who did it.

I've lost my chance.

And quite a lot of Points.

Oh well. You can't turn back time.

I think I should just make a note for myself to be more attentive in the future.

The dinner turned out quite lively. At some point, a sly smile appeared on Murakami's face. She caught my left hand and started touching it all over:

"Ho… So you have some muscles…"

Aoi turned her face away. A red tint appeared on her cheeks.

After having her fun, Murakami released me. She then placed her hand on the table and proposed for us to have an arm-wrestling match. I declined, not only because it was a bother (mostly for Lu, who was frowning), but also for the simple reason that I had no hope of winning — she had D+ in Str, after all — and yet wished to retain at least some of my male dignity.

At last, I went back to my room, read some more, washed myself, and started getting ready for sleep. I was about to go to the toilet when I saw that the door was closed… Who was there? Aoi? Should I risk it and peek at her again? Or doing it two times in a row will be too risky?

I ground my teeth, placed my hand on the handle, and then…

The door refused to open.

It was closed from inside.

I sighed.

Suddenly, a robotic voice of Murakami came from the other side.

"To enter, please fill the form R34…"

"…"

…Maybe later.

…

…

…

When I woke up the next day, it was 6:30 in the morning. The sparrows were chirping from the other side of the window. For some time, I was just staring at the ceiling. Then I forced myself to stoop up and was about to start dressing when suddenly, I heard someone knocking on my door.

Who's that?

I put on my pants and opened the door. I saw Murakami standing in the hallway, dressed in her usual red tracksuit. Immediately, the girl placed a finger on her lips, telling me to stay silent.

Then, without explaining anything at all, she started crawling through the hallway.

After walking several steps, and turned and waved her hand, signing me to follow her.

…Just what is going on here?

I followed the girl, also trying to be as quiet as possible.

We went out into the street.

Murakami started peeking from the edge of the building. I followed the suit.

Several seconds passed by. I was about to ask just what are we doing when the girl suddenly whispered:

"Quite!" and froze.

I blinked and saw a girl appear from the bushed on the other side of the building. It was Lu. She carefully approached the window of one of the rooms and left on the ground below it a white box. I recognized it. It was the same food box that I saw in the kitchen a day before.

Then Aoi quietly left.

Murakami and I looked at each other. We were about to walk there and check what was inside that box when suddenly, the window opened. We froze once again.

Then I saw a thread with a hook attached lower itself to the box. The hook caught the box, and then the thread pulled it inside the window...