The next day dawned under the weight of the inevitable: a scheduled public execution.
Kaito walked toward Minegahara High School. The air was crisp, birds were singing, and the world seemed annoyingly normal. However, as soon as he crossed the school gate, the social physics of the environment shifted drastically.
Usually unobtrusive, Kaito was like a neutral particle in the immense electron cloud that made up the student body. Today, however, he was a radioactive anomaly, impossible to ignore.
As he advanced through the courtyard, conversations ceased. Heads turned. And, most impressively, a path opened up before him. Students physically recoiled, creating a two-meter corridor of empty space around him.
It was like the Moses Effect, only instead of parting the Red Sea with divine faith, he was parting teenagers using sheer social infamy.
"Incredible," Fia's voice whispered in his head. She was in ethereal mode, per the contract. "You've generated a Level 5 Social Repulsion Field! People aren't just looking; they are actively fearing contamination by association. Kaito, is this... efficient?"
"Very," Kaito thought back, adjusting his backpack strap. "I don't have to dodge anyone. Commute time to the shoe lockers has been reduced by 15%."
He walked through the shoe locker area. The silence was heavy, punctuated by whispers he chose not to process. "...the guy from yesterday..." "...Koga's boyfriend..." "...crazy..."
He changed his shoes with economic movements. As he closed the metal locker door, he noticed a group of first-year students staring at him as if he were a dangerous animal that had just escaped the zoo.
Kaito looked at them. They froze.
"Good morning," he said, monotone.
They fled.
"Absolute power," Kaito muttered to himself. "How convenient."
But convenience had a price, and that price was waiting for him behind the gym.
Tomoe Koga was there, exactly where he had left her the day before, as if she had spent the entire night planted on the concrete. She wasn't crying now. She was pacing back and forth, chewing on her thumbnail, radiating an aura of anxiety that could power a small electrical plant.
When she saw Kaito rounding the corner, she stopped. Her expression went through a complex spectrum of emotions: relief, hatred, shame, and finally, resignation.
"You came," she said, her voice tense.
"I said I would," Kaito replied, stopping at a safe distance. He wasn't there to comfort her. He was there for business.
He pulled a cheap, small spiral notebook and a pen from his pocket.
"What is that?" Koga asked, suspicious.
"The Terms of Service," Kaito said, opening the notebook. "As I said yesterday, this is a transaction. For it to function efficiently and with minimal annoyance to me, we need ground rules. Sit down."
He pointed to a concrete bench. Koga, looking stunned by his bureaucratic authority, sat. Kaito remained standing.
"Clause One: Duration," Kaito began to read. "The contract is valid until the start of summer vacation. This covers the critical period of your social problem and gives me a definite end date. After that date, we 'break up' amicably, or tragically, depending on what requires less effort at the time."
Koga nodded slowly. "Summer vacation... okay. That's... July. A month."
"Clause Two: Communication," Kaito continued. "You will not call me after 9:00 PM. That is my downtime. Text messages must be limited to fake date logistics and actual emergencies. No 'good morning,' no unnecessary emojis, no pictures of your lunch."
Koga frowned, offended. "I wasn't going to send you a picture of my lunch! Who do you think I am?"
"A teenager with a smartphone and a need for validation. Statistically, it is likely," Kaito countered without looking at her. "Clause Three: Public Works. We will eat lunch together. We will walk to the station together. We will do the bare minimum necessary to maintain the facade. But do not expect me to carry your bag or feed you."
"Gross! I would never ask for that!"
"Good. We are making progress." Kaito turned the page. He took a deep breath. This was the most important part. The security patch. The Azusagawa Error fix.
He lowered the notebook and looked her directly in the eye.
"Clause Four: The Non-Affection Directive."
Koga blinked. "What?"
"This is the most important rule," Kaito said, his voice cold and clear as cut glass. "Listen carefully, Koga. I do not like you."
Koga's face turned red. "Hey! You don't have to be so..."
"Do not interrupt me. I do not like you. I find your personality based on pleasing others annoying. I find your cowardice regarding your friends problematic. And I find the way you speak in dialect when you're nervous auditorily exhausting."
The words were cruel, surgical. Koga was gaped-mouthed, tears of anger welling in her eyes.
"I am doing this," Kaito continued, relentless, "because you created a time paradox that threatened my peace. I am a plumber fixing a leak, not Prince Charming. I am not kind. I am not your savior. I am a tool you are using."
He leaned forward, invading her personal space just enough to be menacing.
"Therefore, do not mistake my competence for affection. Do not mistake our forced proximity for intimacy. And, under no circumstances, absolutely none, are you to fall in love with me."
The silence in the back courtyard was absolute. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees.
Koga stared at him, trembling. But it wasn't fear. It was pure indignation.
She jumped to her feet, fists clenched.
"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" she shouted, the Hakata dialect escaping at full force. "Fall in love with you?! With you?! You are an arrogant, mean, antisocial idiot! You humiliated me in front of the whole school! You have the charisma of a wet rock! I'd rather fall in love with a lamppost than with you!"
She was panting, face red, pointing a finger at his chest.
"I will never, ever, in a million years, like someone like you! Got it?!"
Kaito watched her, noting the genuine anger and repulsion in her gaze, as well as the absolute certainty shining through.
A weight lifted from his shoulders.
"Understood," he said, closing the notebook with a satisfying snap. "The contract is accepted."
"SYSTEM CONFLICT!" Fia's voice sounded, seeming to have a migraine. "THAT WAS... THAT WAS THE MOST EFFICIENT ANTI-ROMANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN! BUT... BUT THE 'BOND' BAR IS RISING! WHY?!"
"Because honesty creates trust, even if it is trust in mutual hatred," Kaito thought.
"Let's go," he said to Koga, checking his watch. "The bell will ring in three minutes. We have to be seen walking in together. And try to look less like you want to kill me and more like you are... tolerating my existence. It's more believable."
Koga huffed, wiping her eyes aggressively. "I hate you so much."
"The feeling is mutual and logistically perfect," Kaito replied, turning to leave. "Let's go."
The entrance into the main building was the trial by fire.
Koga walked beside him, stiff as a board. Kaito maintained his usual posture of slumped shoulders and dead-fish eyes. To an outside observer, they looked like the world's most unhappy and incompatible couple.
But they were a couple. The label was there, visible and undeniable.
As they walked down the crowded hallway, Kaito felt the weight of the stares. He saw the whispers.
Then, he saw Mai.
She was standing near the second-floor stairs, talking to a friend. She saw the duo approaching. The bizarre "couple": the social pariah and the fallen popular girl.
Mai's eyes met Kaito's.
There was only a slight arch of an eyebrow and an almost imperceptible nod. An acknowledgment from general to general on the battlefield. Operation underway.
Koga, noticing Kaito's gaze, looked at Mai. She shrank visibly. Mai Sakurajima was a celebrity, an untouchable goddess of the school. Koga was just... Koga.
"She's looking at us," Koga whispered, panicking. "Sakurajima-senpai is judging my life choices."
"She is judging your posture," Kaito lied, monotone. "Straighten your back. You are the school villain's girlfriend. Take pride in your bad decision."
Koga straightened her back out of pure reflex. "I'm not... ugh!"
They arrived at Koga's classroom. The door was open. Inside, the "popular group" was gathered. Maezawa was there, sitting on a desk, laughing loudly at something, desperately trying to project an image that he hadn't been socially castrated the day before.
When Kaito stopped in the doorway, the laughter died instantly.
The entire room froze.
Kaito looked inside. He said nothing. He just looked at Maezawa, then at Koga, and then back at Maezawa. The silence stretched, uncomfortable and heavy.
"I'll pick you up for lunch," Kaito said to Koga, loud enough to be heard. "Don't run away."
Koga swallowed hard and nodded. "R-Right."
Kaito turned and walked away, feeling the stares burning into his back.
"Intimidation Phase complete," he thought. "Now, I have four hours of sleep in class before the next act."
"KAITO! LOOK OUT!"
Fia's warning came a second too late.
Kaito turned the corner and collided with something solid. Or rather, someone collided with him.
"Ouch!"
Books flew. Papers scattered.
Kaito didn't fall—his center of gravity was low due to his lazy posture—but the person who hit him went to the ground.
It was a girl. Glasses. Hair in two braids. She was groping the floor, looking for the glasses that had flown off.
"My glasses... where..."
Kaito looked at the scene. A cliché. The Clumsy Girl. The Hallway Collision.
He sighed. He could just walk away. It would be consistent with his new "villain" persona.
But the girl was groping dangerously close to his foot. If she tripped over him, it would be more physical contact. More effort.
"How troublesome," he grumbled.
He crouched down, picked up the glasses, and placed them in the girl's hand.
"Here."
The girl put on the glasses and looked up. Her eyes widened as she recognized who he was. The Courtyard Monster. The Destroyer of Hierarchies.
"T-Thank you!" she shrieked, gathered her books in a desperate motion, and ran as if the devil himself had returned her sight.
Kaito stood up, dusting off his hands.
"Your reputation is pristine," Fia observed sarcastically. "You are terrorizing the civilian population with acts of basic kindness."
"Fear is a useful tool," Kaito replied, resuming his path to the classroom. "It keeps the hallway clear."
Lunchtime arrived.
Kaito went to Koga's classroom. She was waiting by the door, holding her bento box like a shield. She looked like she was heading to the gallows.
"Let's go," he said.
They walked to the cafeteria. Kaito chose a table right in the center. Not in an isolated corner. In the center. Where everyone could see them.
He sat down. Koga hesitated, then sat across from him.
"Eat," he ordered, opening his own yakisoba bun.
"I'm not hungry," she whispered, feeling the eyes of the entire school piercing her skin. "Everyone is staring."
"They are staring at me," Kaito corrected. "They are wondering what a normal girl like you is doing with a freak like me. You are the victim here, Koga. That is the role. Enjoy the sympathy."
Koga looked at him. She began to understand. He was absorbing the toxicity. He was becoming the lightning rod so she could stay in the shadow.
"Why..." she started, picking up a cherry tomato with her chopsticks. "Why do you try so hard to be hated?"
Kaito chewed his bread. "I don't try. Being hated is easy. Being loved requires constant maintenance. Replying to messages. Remembering dates. Smiling. Being hated only requires me to be myself and say the truth out loud."
He pointed the bread at her. "Look at Maezawa. He is spending 90% of his brain processing energy trying to maintain his image right now. He is exhausted. Me? I am just eating bread. I am free."
Koga looked at the table where her old "friends" were sitting. Maezawa was laughing too loud, gesturing too much. He looked... desperate.
She looked at Kaito. He had crumbs in the corner of his mouth, staring at nothing with dead fish eyes.
He was repulsive. He was rude.
But he was right.
"You are weird," she said, and for the first time, it didn't sound like an insult. It sounded like a scientific observation.
"Eat the tomato," Kaito said.
"KAITO! EVENT ALERT!" Fia shouted.
Kaito stopped. "What?"
"MAEZAWA! HE IS COMING! HE IS TRYING TO RECLAIM TERRITORY!"
Kaito looked. Indeed, the senpai was marching toward their table, with two of his lackeys behind him. He had that "I'm going to make a cruel joke to regain my honor" smile.
Koga froze. The tomato fell from her chopsticks.
"Kaito..." she whispered.
"Keep eating," Kaito said, not changing position.
Maezawa stopped at the table. He placed his hands on the surface, invading their space.
"Hey, Koga," he said, ignoring Kaito. "We're going to karaoke after school. You're coming, right? You're not going to ditch us for this... weird pet, are you?"
It was a power move. He was offering her a way back into the group. All she had to do was reject Kaito.
Koga looked at Maezawa. The invitation was tempting. It was normality. It was the end of the nightmare.
But then she looked at Kaito. He wasn't looking at Maezawa. He was looking at the watch on his wrist.
"You have ten seconds," Kaito said, without looking up.
Maezawa blinked. "What?"
Kaito looked up. His eyes were cold, empty, and terrifying.
"To take your hands off my table," Kaito said. "Before I start listing out loud the three things I heard you say about the soccer team captain's girlfriend in the locker room last week."
The blood drained from Maezawa's face so fast he looked almost blue.
Kaito knew nothing. He was bluffing. He was using the "Forer Effect" applied to locker room gossip. It was a statistical bet that a guy like Maezawa talked trash about everyone.
But Maezawa's reaction confirmed everything. The fear in his eyes was real.
"Y-You..." Maezawa stammered.
"Five seconds," Kaito said, going back to eating his bread.
Maezawa pulled his hands back as if the table were on fire. He looked at Koga, then at Kaito, and muttered something unintelligible before turning and walking away fast, almost running.
The silence in the cafeteria returned.
Koga looked at Kaito with wide eyes. "Did... did you really know?"
"No," Kaito said. "But guys like him always have dirty secrets. It is a universal constant."
He finished his bread and crumpled the wrapper.
"See?" he said, standing up. "Problem solved with minimum physical effort and maximum psychological damage. Efficiency."
He picked up his tray.
"Let's go. The bell is going to ring. And I need to sleep in History class."
Koga sat for another second, looking at the back of that impossible boy. She felt a strange shiver. It wasn't love. It definitely wasn't love. She still hated him.
But for the first time in months... she felt safe.
[Affinity (Tomoe Koga): -50 (Hatred) -> -45 (Confused Hatred)] [Loop Status: Stable (For now)]
"WATCH OUT, KAITO!" Fia warned. "THE BAR MOVED! SHE IS CONFUSED! THE NO-LOVE PROTOCOL IS AT RISK!"
"How troublesome," Kaito thought, leaving the cafeteria. "I'll have to be more unpleasant tomorrow."
________________________________________
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