Chapter 61: A Completely Different Victor
"This guy…"
Amid the surrounding students' cheers, Kaguya stared at Asagiri in the center of the mat. A thought quietly surfaced in her mind.
Strength, athleticism, reflexes… all of it far beyond a normal high school student.
Could he be a Player too?
The moment the idea appeared, she dismissed it.
Impossible.
If Asagiri were truly a Player, he would be keeping a low profile. He would not make attention grabbing remarks on the first day of school, then come to the gym and openly display abnormal physical ability in front of an entire class.
After seeing the entrance exam results, Kaguya had already instructed Hayasaka to investigate his middle school records.
Tennis. Basketball. Badminton.
Champion of the National Junior High School Tournament for two consecutive terms, across three sports.
And then there was the most ridiculous note of all: he'd clashed with five delinquents from outside the school and sent every one of them to the hospital.
If his current physical ability had been obtained through the game, that would mean he became a Player as early as second year of junior high.
That was even more impossible.
Kaguya couldn't say for certain whether she belonged to the first batch of Players, but she was sure the game and its Dungeons hadn't existed for long. They were still in their opening stage.
Otherwise, among all those Players who gained powers, someone would have slipped and exposed themselves in the real world.
And Players dying inside Dungeons, whether their bodies returned or simply vanished, would have triggered serious attention from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department long ago.
So Asagiri's physical ability wasn't something he gained.
It was something he already had.
And if she looked at it from another angle, his habit of drawing attention everywhere he went only reinforced the point. If he were a Player, he would not behave like this.
It seems…
Utsunomiya Asagiri wasn't a Player like her.
For some reason, after confirming that, Kaguya felt a strange relief. At the same time, an indescribable sense of loss pressed against her chest.
She didn't understand it.
Maybe… if the person who beat her in the entrance exam were also a Player, the competition between them would become truly interesting.
While Kaguya's thoughts drifted, Asagiri, still in the center of the arena, walked toward the muscular boy.
The class expected mockery. Humiliation. A victory lap.
Instead, Asagiri bent slightly and extended his hand.
"Get up."
"Utsunomiya…"
The boy sat slumped on the mat, looking at the outstretched hand with a complicated expression. Then he gave a self deprecating smile.
"As expected… I was too confident. I thought I could beat you."
"No." Asagiri shook his head. His voice was slow and clear. "You're wrong."
"Even though you lost to me, I still respect the resolve it took to challenge me."
"That resolve, that courage… I won't mock it. I won't belittle it."
"Because we're opponents, not enemies."
"Utsunomiya…"
The boy's face shifted. Emotion flickered across it before he could stop it. He grabbed Asagiri's hand.
Asagiri pulled him up.
The boy held on tightly, gripping with both hands now, and spoke with solemn sincerity.
"Thank you for the lesson."
Asagiri nodded, smiling. "Mm. Likewise."
The boys of Class A stared, expressions turning complicated.
The same male student who'd been lectured by Asagiri on the first day couldn't help blurting it out.
"Utsunomiya… is actually really charming."
"This is what a real showdown between men should feel like."
"Even after winning, he doesn't trample the other guy's determination… Those lines were straight out of a hot blooded manga."
"Just hearing it makes my blood boil a little."
As Kaguya listened to the boys praise him with shining eyes, she frowned.
How did this happen?
At first, most of the boys had disliked Asagiri. Even if they didn't hate him outright, they certainly didn't approve of him.
Yet after one judo class, a brief spar that barely lasted a moment, and a few words at the end, his reputation flipped completely.
Were those words really that magical?
Kaguya scoffed inwardly.
What resolve? What courage?
Winning was winning. Losing was losing.
"Resolve" and "courage" were just pretty words used to comfort the defeated.
"Iwanaga, let's practice too."
Kaguya's voice snapped Kotoko out of her idle watching. Kotoko smiled with a helpless little shrug.
"Oh dear, Shinomiya. Did you forget? I'm physically disabled. I can't do anything too strenuous."
"Then why did you volunteer to pair with me?"
"I'm being considerate."
Kotoko raised a fair index finger as if explaining something obvious.
"Think about it. You're the young lady of the Shinomiya family. If someone pairs with you, they'll worry about getting too rough and accidentally injuring you, right?"
"So if everyone's worried, no one wants to be your partner."
"And conveniently, no one wants to be mine either."
She smiled brightly, sweet as sugar.
"So let's reluctantly form a pair. Two rejected girls, both with flaws."
Kaguya replied without expression, her tone flat.
"Iwanaga. I don't have flaws."
Kotoko met her eyes directly, the smile on her face turning faintly meaningful.
"Maybe that's true," she said softly, "if you're only talking about your body."
…
Sunday, Tokyo, at the entrance of a two story detached house.
"Ding dong."
"Coming."
Megumi opened the door a crack and peered out.
A handsome boy stood outside.
Beside him was a tall, well proportioned girl with long flaxen hair.
And next to her, a petite girl with light golden short curls who looked like she belonged in middle school.
Megumi blinked, startled.
"Um… who are you looking for?"
"Don't recognize us?" Asagiri's voice carried a hint of laughter. "Right, you've never seen our real faces."
Megumi's eyes slid to Asuna and Kotoko. Their hair colors and silhouettes were instantly familiar.
Her memory clicked into place.
"So it's you." Her expression stayed calm. Her voice was gentle. "You actually came to find me."
"Please wait a moment."
She closed the door, unfastened the security chain, then opened it again.
"Please come in. My dad went to work, and my mom went to a hot spring with some aunts. They should be back tonight."
Asuna tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and nodded politely.
"Thank you. Sorry for intruding."
The three stepped inside. Before they could say anything else, Megumi opened the shoe cabinet, took out three pairs of disposable slippers, and neatly set them down in front of them.
"Do you want to change? It's fine if you don't. I'm cleaning later anyway."
Asuna smiled. "We'll change."
After switching slippers, they followed Megumi upstairs and into her bedroom.
"Please sit for a bit," Megumi said. "I'll get drinks and snacks."
She left the room.
Asuna's gaze drifted around the space, careful and curious. Then she spoke thoughtfully.
"Megumi's house… and her room… it's the same feeling she gives people."
She paused, searching for the right word.
"What would you call it…"
"Ordinary," Asagiri said instantly.
"Yes. That's it." Asuna nodded as if enlightened, then stared at him and teased, half joking. "You can actually describe a girl as 'ordinary' without hesitation. Your brain is really something."
"That's called accurate judgment," Asagiri replied calmly. "I can sum up your biggest trait in one sentence too."
Asuna and Kotoko both leaned in, curious.
"Then do it," Kotoko said.
"You." Asagiri pointed at Asuna. "Love struck young lady."
Asuna's face stiffened.
Before she could protest, Asagiri pointed at Kotoko.
"And you… lewd joke loli."
Both girls opened their mouths at the same time.
"Who's love struck?!"
"I'm not a loli, I'm a mature high school girl!"
They stopped for a heartbeat.
Then, after thinking it through…
Asuna's eyes narrowed, suspiciously sliding to Kotoko.
"You… you kind of are a loli, though."
"With your middle school… no, elementary school looking body, who would believe you're a high school girl?"
Kotoko's biggest weak point had just been struck. She snapped back immediately.
"What do you know?! Asagiri likes flat ones like me!"
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