While Kushida Kikyo was busy launching her meticulously researched plan to latch onto the strongest thigh in the room...
Over on the other side, the commotion surrounding Ayanokouji's return had already died down, and everyone tacitly went their separate ways home.
But thanks to Horikita Suzune's earlier sudden whim, Chris now had one extra item added to his after-work schedule — giving her special training.
Naturally, Horikita Suzune was looking forward to it.
After all, even though Karuizawa Kei had been dying to cling to Chris, with Ichinose present she'd been forced to swallow her jealousy. To avoid making the tension worse, she obediently left together with Matsushita Chiaki instead.
Barring any surprises, the time ahead would be hers and Chris's alone.
Enough to make her want to cheer, to applaud herself!
Unfortunately, tonight's training seemed destined not to remain a private affair between just the two of them.
Nanase Tsubasa, as if she had some urgent matter on her mind, trailed closely behind them step for step, showing not the slightest intention of leaving.
Horikita Suzune, though displeased by this, didn't open her mouth to shoo her away. After all, her impression of this underclassman Nanase was fairly decent — and if the girl was this persistent, perhaps she really did have something pressing she couldn't help but say?
Soon enough, the three of them arrived at the indoor gymnasium where they used to train.
Gazing at the three wooden training swords displayed on the rack a short distance away, Horikita Suzune finally came to a stop, turned around, and questioned Nanase Tsubasa:
"Nanase, you've been following us this whole time. Is there something important you need?"
"It's just us here now, and there's no school surveillance in this place — we already confirmed that long ago. So you can speak freely."
Upon hearing this, Nanase Tsubasa didn't answer right away.
She mulled it over for a moment, then bowed deeply to both Chris and Horikita Suzune.
"Senpai, senpai... first of all, I owe you an apology."
Chris arched an eyebrow, feigning surprise:
"An apology for what?"
"Don't tell me... you're actually a spy planted in our class by the Black Sphere, or by the administration?"
Nanase Tsubasa shook her head, took a deep breath, and explained:
"At the very beginning, I told you that I came here for the Black Sphere's 'Miracle,' right?"
Horikita Suzune tilted her cheek slightly, fixing her phoenix eyes on the girl, unsure of what she was about to say next.
Nanase Tsubasa lowered her lashes and spoke in a heavy voice:
"The truth is, not long after the school sent me my invitation letter, Director Tsukishiro came to me of his own accord and told me..."
"That Ayanokouji-kun is one of the most fundamental reasons my childhood friend died."
"So when I came to the Advanced Nurturing High School, my original goal was never the so-called Miracle at all — it was to take revenge on him. But..."
"But you never expected there really would be a Miracle here — or more precisely, that there really is a Black Sphere capable of granting one, right?" Chris cut in at just the right moment.
Nanase Tsubasa nodded firmly:
"Yes. My goal now has shifted from revenge to figuring out how to survive in this exam ground, and how to gather enough 100 points to resurrect Eiichiro."
"After all, when it comes down to it, all of this is just Director Tsukishiro's one-sided account... I think it's better to ask the person involved directly to learn the truth."
Chris stroked his chin, pretending not to understand:
"So what you mean is..."
"Just like I said before — I want to grow stronger."
Nanase Tsubasa lifted her head, a stubborn glint in her eyes:
"I want to survive. I want to know the truth of what happened."
Chris looked a little puzzled:
"If you want to know the truth, wouldn't confronting Ayanokouji face to face be enough?"
"As I recall, your Ripple aptitude is pretty good, isn't it? I imagine that if you just buy some items to enhance yourself, cultivating Ki would come naturally to you too. Following me around, you'd probably find it hard to learn anything of real substance."
At this, Nanase Tsubasa still stubbornly shook her head:
"I've considered that too. But I think that aside from a system like the Black Sphere — one that transcends human civilization and has absolutely no need to lie — any single person's perspective is inherently subjective."
"And besides..." the girl bit her lower lip, "right now, surviving — surviving until we clear this Black Sphere game — is everyone's top priority. I shouldn't go chasing a private grudge at a time like this and damage the class's unity."
"Then honestly, you could just buy the information from the Black Sphere," Chris pointed out. "Sakayanagi's congenital heart disease treatment earlier only cost thirty S-points. Asking for the truth behind a single piece of intel shouldn't be too expensive."
"As for your latter reason..."
Chris paused, shifting his gaze toward Horikita Suzune, who stood off to one side.
Horikita Suzune blinked, caught off guard.
Then she remembered the rule Chris had set from the very start: Nanase Tsubasa could only come to Chris for guidance after receiving her approval.
Selfishly speaking, Horikita Suzune truly wasn't very keen on having this rare private training time with Chris disturbed by others.
But Horikita Suzune was not, at her core, a cold or heartless person.
And Nanase Tsubasa's personality really wasn't the type she disliked.
In fact, within Nanase's reckless, all-consuming stubbornness for the sake of someone precious, Horikita faintly glimpsed a shadow of her own past.
She pondered for a moment, and in the end, made her decision.
"Nanase has been improving quickly," Horikita Suzune said, offering a fair evaluation as she looked at Chris. "I think she's doing pretty well. She's earned the right to stay."
Seeing this, Chris rubbed his chin:
"Well, since you've said as much... then from here on, the two of you go at it together."
"We'll spar through real combat, to spur your growth that way."
"After all, inside the Time Chamber, with pain sensation dulled, you always have to worry about a slip of the Black Sphere's war-blade triggering a fatality ruling and forcing an exit. But out here in reality with wooden swords, there's no need to consider that at all."
Horikita Suzune nodded slightly, stepping straight forward to put some distance between herself and Nanase Tsubasa.
And then, she made a move that Nanase Tsubasa never saw coming.
Horikita Suzune reached up, unfastened the buttons of her uniform, and began undressing.
"Wh-wh-what — Horikita-senpai, what are you doing?!"
Nanase Tsubasa's pupils shrank abruptly, and she instinctively froze on the spot, her fair cheeks instantly flushing a shade of red, her words even stumbling into a stammer.
Horikita Suzune casually pulled off her uniform jacket and draped it over the bench, revealing the taut black Combat Suit beneath that perfectly traced the girl's graceful curves.
She turned her head to look at Nanase Tsubasa, a little puzzled herself:
"Sensei's swordsmanship is very strong. In the beginning, when he was teaching me and Ichinose, he'd use breaking the blue rings on the Combat Suit as the assessment standard during sparring."
"Because the moment you slip up, the Combat Suit gets damaged and stops working — and you have to wait until the next exam before it refreshes."
Horikita Suzune's tone was flat:
"You could call it a very formal type of live-combat practice. So this is just how we've always done things... Nanase, if you're not used to it, then practice in your uniform. There's no need to do it the same way I do."
Watching Horikita Suzune act as if this were the most natural thing in the world...
Nanase Tsubasa's eyes slowly widened, all her sharpness completely melting away, leaving nothing but a face full of stunned bewilderment.
"Uh, this..."
In truth, it wasn't strange for Nanase Tsubasa to wear such an expression.
Any maiden in the bloom of youth with a normal sense of shame, seeing an ordinarily aloof senpai strip down to nothing but a layer of skin-tight rubber right in front of a boy without changing her expression, would be left dumbfounded for a moment.
It was pretty much like being asked to put on a sukumizu swimsuit in the middle of a crowded public square.
Even Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune had been bashful when they first faced this particular training.
It was only because of the natural favorable impression they held toward Chris that they quickly adapted, and gradually began to secretly savor this kind of exclusive "guidance."
Though, just like that time Amanatsu Kazuha secretly filmed them, whenever there was an outsider present, Chris would basically choose to move elsewhere and never let others watch.
But even so, Chris actually rarely initiated this kind of activity himself. After all, in his eyes, this posture of shedding one's guard was itself a form of reward for the girls.
Of course, for Nanase Tsubasa — who had only just poured out her heart, confessing the buried obsession that still had her immersed in low spirits, and therefore temporarily wasn't having her judgment swayed by any inner affection...
...this was, well, a bit ahead of schedule for her.
Still, considering that she was, after all, the one asking for a favor.
And seeing how clear and unclouded Chris's gaze was — he truly didn't look like some lecher taking advantage of the opportunity to cop a feel. Otherwise, given the blatantly abnormal attitudes that Ichinose, Karuizawa, and Horikita-senpai all held toward Chris, they probably would have long since been unable to attend classes normally.
So, after a brief inner struggle between reason and heart, Nanase Tsubasa still gritted her teeth and decided to follow Horikita Suzune's example.
Not only for the sake of seeking the truth, but even more because she wanted to survive.
She had to learn genuinely useful life-saving skills from Chris, this suspected "veteran."
Whoosh —
Nanase Tsubasa peeled off her jacket, folded the garment up neatly, and set it on the rack to the side, her face red.
Then she turned around, took a deep breath, and accepted the wooden sword Chris handed her with both hands.
For some reason, even though she couldn't detect anything off or lecherous in Chris's eyes at all...
...under his calm gaze, Nanase Tsubasa felt the body strained beneath the Combat Suit begin to grow uncontrollably hot. Coughing lightly to force down this strange sensation, she spoke in a low voice:
"Am I going at it together with Horikita-senpai?"
Chris nodded, holding his sword one-handed and casually pointing it at an angle toward the ground:
"Steady your breathing and focus your spirit. Throughout the entire duel with me, you must continuously use Ripple or Ki — it can't break, not even once."
"This is both to adapt you to the rhythm of real combat and break your bad habit of swinging your swords blindly, and also to use this opportunity to train your sense of distance, your timing on strikes, your footwork advancing and retreating, and your adaptability."
"You must use your bodies to memorize: which strikes will land, and which will be blocked."
Hearing this well-reasoned tactical arrangement, Nanase Tsubasa couldn't help feeling a flicker of shame over the sordid suspicions she'd harbored just moments ago.
Senpai is clearly guiding us with utmost seriousness, and here I was letting my mind wander...
Taking a deep breath and casting away all stray thoughts completely, she walked over to Horikita Suzune, who was already prepared, and dipped her head slightly:
"Senpai, please go easy on me in a moment."
Horikita Suzune gave a slight nod:
"I'll handle the feint. You watch for openings and go for the sneak strike."
Unlike Nanase Tsubasa, whose state of mind was affected by an excess of emotion.
Because she had a clear means and outlet to vent afterward, Horikita Suzune could now, on the contrary, face Chris with a purely ordinary and composed heart.
No matter how many tender, ambiguous feelings stirred within her, in this moment they would, in the end, only become material for her later practice sessions.
With that thought, Horikita Suzune let out a delicate battle cry, pressed in close, and deliberately tore open an opening for Nanase Tsubasa's sneak attack.
Facing the pincer assault of the two.
Chris did not go all-out the way he had against Kiryuuin Fuka, ending the battle outright with overwhelming strength. He simply maintained his power at a level a full realm above the two of them the entire time.
Yet he deliberately left them room to counterattack, letting the two of them, in their extreme clashes, develop the illusory sensation that "if I just coordinate a little bit better, if I'm just a little bit faster, I could win."
Under Chris's high-pressure feeding of techniques like this.
Nanase Tsubasa's breathing quickly steadied. She cast aside all her bashfulness and, together with Horikita Suzune, entered a combat state. She even began to immersively savor this feeling of taut nerves that was, inexplicably, so comfortable and reassuring — as if she'd entered some enlightened state of flow, as though struck by a sudden awakening.
The crisp clacks of clashing wooden swords echoed through the indoor hall.
And finally.
Just as Nanase Tsubasa had completely lost herself in it, believing she'd finally seized the opening in Chris's breathing, and thrust out a sword with all her might.
Chris suddenly changed his tempo.
With a flip of his wrist, he effortlessly flicked aside her attack.
With a light "tap."
He precisely popped the blue ring on Nanase Tsubasa's shoulder.
The blue enhancement fluid seeped out along the leather-like surface, and with it, some of the enhancement sensation drained away.
Seeing Nanase Tsubasa's movements come to a halt, Chris stopped his hand at the appropriate moment:
"Let's call it here for today. You two head back and get some proper rest."
But Nanase Tsubasa remained standing where she was, her chest rising and falling slightly, clearly still left wanting more.
"Senpai... actually, I can still keep going."
"It's just one ring that broke — the Combat Suit hasn't been weakened all that much."
She had never imagined that even sword practice — something that should have been dull, tedious, even painful — could become this pleasant once Chris was involved...
It was just like practicing the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra — utterly addictive, impossible to stop.
But Chris shook his head decisively:
"It's getting late. No matter how badly you want to improve, the rest your body needs is indispensable."
"What's more, we've been sealed up in these Combat Suits all day, on top of the high-intensity simulation we went through earlier in the Time Chamber — your spirit is bound to be a little overloaded... Better to head back early, soak in a bath, and relax. Balance work with rest."
Off to the side, Horikita Suzune could deeply relate as well.
She reached up, touched the sweat in her palm through the Combat Suit, and nodded, submitting to Chris's decision.
Seeing this, Nanase Tsubasa had no choice but to walk over and put her jacket back on.
Only this time, because she still retained that sense of security from the earlier battle.
She was no longer as bashful as she'd been at the start.
The way she dressed and zipped up right in front of Chris was as natural as if she were before a lover of many years — even carrying a hint of alluring, lingering reluctance.
Chris took in this scene in its entirety and gave a soundless little laugh.
All he could say was that habit truly is a terrifying thing.
Even though the current Nanase Tsubasa absolutely couldn't possibly remember those past memories of being with him.
She could still, by virtue of the concept lingering in her subconscious, instinctively let down all her guard around him, existing in a state of ambiguous, keep-you-close-yet-hold-you-at-arm's-length warmth.
That said, whether it was his usual method, or the measure best suited to Nanase Tsubasa's current personality...
The correct answer was probably, indeed, to play hard-to-get — to reach the highest realm of leaving her craving more.
Seeing that the two of them had finished changing, Chris was about to toss aside that somewhat worse-for-wear wooden sword.
But Nanase Tsubasa suddenly stepped forward:
"Senpai, this wooden sword... may I take it home to keep as a memento?"
"If necessary, I can spend some points to buy it from you—"
Chris waved his hand indifferently: "It's just a beat-up wooden sword. If you want it, take it."
As he spoke, he turned his head toward Horikita Suzune, who was zipping up, and asked offhandedly:
"Horikita, do you want one?"
Horikita Suzune didn't pause her movements, merely shaking her head coldly, entirely unbothered:
"No. I no longer need this sort of lifeless object as an emotional crutch."
"I've already grown."
Watching the girl's proud, cold demeanor.
Chris merely glanced at her habitually dominant left hand.
Those fair, slender fingers were, at this very moment, unconsciously curling in ever so slightly.
Chris understood perfectly.
Afterward.
Because the Advanced Nurturing High School's student dormitories were all uniformly clustered together, with everyone differing only slightly in which floor they lived on.
So after they returned to the dorms together and the elevator reached his floor, Chris stepped out, waving goodbye to the two girls.
He walked alone to the door of his own dorm room.
Looking at the empty corridor, he saw no one deliberately waiting there for him.
Chris couldn't help nodding in satisfaction.
Although he did currently enjoy the "girl chases boy" dynamic — the effortless amusement of having pretty girls throw themselves at him.
But if the other party completely lost her own dignity and independent will over it, becoming nothing more than a clinging marionette on strings, then it would be rather dull and unlovely.
Take Karuizawa Kei, for instance... her base nature was simply like that; parasitism was already carved into her DNA. No need to elaborate.
But even so, under Chris's guidance, she too was gradually learning to toughen up for his sake, beginning to unify the girls' factions — and that, too, counted as a kind of growth, didn't it?
Swiping open his door and returning to his room.
Chris was greeted head-on by the sight of the [Magic Butt] he'd tossed carelessly onto a high spot on the counter.
Sakayanagi Arisu's beet-red face flashed through his mind, and he quickly lost interest.
This thing was only fun to play with in person, watching the other party's expression change. Using it from afar somehow lacked a bit of soul.
"As for right now..."
Chris flung himself into the soft sofa and let out a long sigh.
"I might as well take a look at the items I've randomly rolled out these past few days."
He silently tallied up the time in his head.
At a rate of one item per day, from the ten-pull until now, the system had probably accumulated another five single pulls, right?
"As expected... saving up for a full ten-pull really is too hard for me."
Well, since there's nothing interesting going on right now anyway, I might as well play around with some gacha.
With that thought, Chris opened the system interface.
His gaze fell on the five new item icons that had appeared in his storage slots, and he couldn't help sinking into contemplation.
The [Disintegrator] from Ben 10.
The [Beta Box] from Ultraman.
Doraemon's [Time Machine] and [Bamboo Copter].
And, from League of Legends... the [Clockwork Spirit]?
____
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