After dinner.
Sato and Fujimiya Konomi sat together on the sofa in the living room.
On the low table in front of them was a large cardboard box filled with letter paper. Inside were envelopes that Sato had arranged neatly. Judging roughly, there were probably several hundred of them.
Fujimiya Konomi casually picked up a stack of envelopes from the box.
Most of these envelopes were pink like cherry blossoms. Although there were plenty of other colors as well, every single one had some sort of pattern or design expressing affection on its front.
Some had simple hearts, while others carried messages filled with tenderness.
Every letter was filled with a girl's anticipation of beautiful love. The red heart-shaped marks on them seemed to hold the wonderful dreams of girls experiencing love for the first time.
Unfortunately, not every beautiful expectation would receive a response.
"There really are so many!"
Fujimiya Konomi looked at the envelope in her hand, then glanced at the completely full cardboard box and exclaimed in amazement.
The stack she had casually picked up alone seemed to contain more than a dozen letters, and judging from the handwriting, they did not seem to have been written by the same person.
"How many love letters are there in here?"
"I don't know. I've never counted them."
Sato shook his head as he spoke. Almost every week, he received varying numbers of love letters, and they had hardly ever stopped.
After sorting through them, he had put all the love letters into the cardboard box in front of him. As for exactly how many there were, even he did not really know.
Many of them were from the Private Mixed High School, while some were from other high schools in the surrounding area.
Back then, the video of him blowing up the Akehisa High School had circulated wildly among the schools nearby.
"You've never even opened them?"
Fujimiya Konomi's slender fingers, white as green onions, brushed across the surfaces of the envelopes. She suddenly noticed that none of them had been opened. After the deep, gentle light in her eyes flickered slightly, she raised her head and looked at Sato.
"No."
"Why?"
Fujimiya Konomi looked at Sato curiously.
Sitting on the sofa, Sato picked up a love letter. Looking at the clear and graceful handwriting on it, he revealed a faint smile.
"After all, these are all girls' feelings. If I already know that I won't accept them, then opening that expression of affection anyway would make it lose something."
"After all, these sheets of paper and these words carry a girl's beautiful hopes. So I think it's better to let them remain preserved like this. As long as I don't open them, that beauty won't become spoiled."
The girl covered her mouth and laughed, but her gaze toward Sato became even gentler.
She looked at Sato and blinked.
That action gave her originally gentle appearance a slightly playful charm.
"Why do you think you wouldn't accept them? What if... there was a girl you liked among them?"
"Is that so?"
An expression of surprise appeared on Sato's face. He looked thoughtfully at the box full of love letters and said, "Could there actually be one from you in here? Then I really ought to look carefully!"
Hearing this, the smile on Fujimiya Konomi's face became even more radiant.
When she smiled, two shallow dimples appeared on her cheeks, making her look especially pure and adorable. After looking him up and down, Fujimiya Konomi said with some exasperation, "Dear Sato, you've really gotten better and better at sweet-talking..."
Suddenly, she paused.
Her gentle eyes gazed deeply at Sato. The corners of her lips curled into a delicate arc. Her eyes glimmered with what seemed to be amusement, yet also seemed to contain something else.
"I remember you couldn't say things like that back then. Now come clean. How exactly did you practice getting so good at this? Don't tell me you've been fooling around with lots of girls behind my back!"
"No... I guess not."
The moment he was stared at by those bright, clear eyes, Sato could not help feeling a little guilty.
For some reason, a figure suddenly appeared in his mind.
Long black hair as dark as ink, like the depths of the night, set off a beautiful and alluring face as delicate as the moon. Her wine-red eyes always seemed to carry a smile, while the corners of her lips often curved upward into a captivating arc.
Utaha...
Sato suddenly sighed inwardly.
Fujimiya Konomi's gaze suddenly narrowed slightly, a hint of doubt appearing on her face. Those eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything stared fixedly at Sato.
She looked at Sato.
"That suspicious pause!"
"Was there one?"
"Of course there was!"
"Fine, I admit it. There's nothing I can do about being too outstanding, after all. There are beautiful girls everywhere around me, and every one of them wants to eat me alive. With these puny arms and legs of mine, I really don't want to get chopper'd..."
Sato spoke in a lighthearted tone, sounding faintly helpless.
"What's that?"
Fujimiya Konomi suddenly took notice of that word.
"A chopper? Well, that's a long story. First of all, it's a touching tale of a great man known as Big Bro Makoto, who used his own experience to warn future generations. The story takes place in a place called Sakakino Academy..."
Sato began telling Fujimiya Konomi the story known as School Days. Its twists and turns were no less dramatic than those of a ridiculously melodramatic Mary Sue idol drama, and Fujimiya Konomi listened with rapt attention.
"So in the end, Ito Makoto had his head chopped off?"
"Mm, that's exactly what happened."
"Mm... So that's what a chopper is."
Fujimiya Konomi nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Sato with a beaming smile.
"Do you want to try it?"
Sato looked at her warily.
"What are you planning to do?"
The girl suddenly stood up, raising an eyebrow and putting on what she thought was a fierce and menacing expression, though in reality it was quite adorable.
"I think there's a very good chance you'll turn into Ito Makoto, so I've decided to chopper you first!"
With that, Fujimiya Konomi walked toward the kitchen.
Sato's heart immediately jumped. She couldn't possibly be serious, could she?! Could it be that Konomi wasn't just secretly dark, but also a yandere?
"Konomi, you're not actually going to do it, are you?"
"Guess!"
"I'm a little scared!"
Fujimiya Konomi had already entered the kitchen, and her voice faintly drifted out from inside.
"Being scared is exactly what you should be, you two-timing radish!"
Sato walked to the kitchen doorway and quietly poked his head inside for a look, only to discover that the girl had already put on an apron and started washing the dishes.
He could not help letting out a sigh of relief. It seemed as though cold sweat had broken out on his back.
For a moment, he had really thought he was going to get chopper'd!