After school. The bell rang to signal the end of class.
The new students who had enrolled just yesterday — many of them fighting back tears, their reluctance plain on their faces — ultimately did as Hirata Yousuke had urged them before class began.
The boys shuffled over to Hirata's side. The girls lined up in front of Karuizawa Kei, one by one registering their abilities and specialties.
There was nothing else for it.
Psychological resistance and physical compliance.
Under the crushing weight of life and death, the two weren't in conflict at all.
Among the anxious crowd of new students, however, Nanase Tsubasa was a clear exception.
Rather than lining up to register with Karuizawa Kei, she walked straight to the back of the classroom and came to a stop in front of Horikita Suzune's desk.
"Horikita-senpai."
Nanase Tsubasa leaned forward slightly and asked in a quiet voice:
"I read through the summary document the class rep posted in the group chat. I noticed that in the midterm exam, anyone who fails gets one life erased by the system as a penalty…"
"But going by the school's own setup — as long as everyone quietly coordinates their scores during the exam and keeps the class average low, that could be avoided, right?"
The girl blinked her bright eyes and pressed on with her train of thought:
"And since the school is specifically running practical combat courses now… I was wondering — couldn't we keep academic study to the bare minimum, and pour the vast majority of our energy into actual combat training against the Black Sphere?"
Horikita Suzune set down the pen she'd been using to organize her notes.
She looked up and fixed Nanase Tsubasa with a measured gaze.
"I understand the logic behind what you're suggesting, and that kind of purely utilitarian strategy does hold up on paper…"
"But at our core, we're still students first."
"Even if the school doesn't seem to be deliberately making academics difficult for us right now — the moment we abandon our studies entirely… can you guarantee the Black Sphere won't use that against us in future exams?"
At that, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka — seated diagonally behind Horikita — offered his own take:
"It might be worth trying."
Horikita Suzune's brow furrowed slightly. She turned to look at him.
Ayanokoji met her gaze, tone flat as ever:
"But not for everyone. We only need to identify those who are confirmed frontline fighters for the Black Sphere exams, and have them apply for leave so they can focus on the school's practical training sessions."
"As long as their academic exam scores aren't affected — and with a little sweetener in the form of points as a 'bribe'… I doubt Chabashira-sensei would say no."
Horikita Suzune paused.
Thinking it over, she had to admit it wasn't necessarily a bad idea.
Still, by reflex, she turned her head toward Chris, wanting his opinion.
Right now, if there was anyone whose judgment she would trust without reservation, it was this man in front of her.
Chris thought for a moment, then spoke:
"Advanced Nurturing High School's curriculum isn't all that tough to begin with. On top of that, the exam rewards only benefit the top three… for most people, grinding away at academics really isn't a great return on investment."
"If it doesn't affect their grades, I think letting some people try taking leave for special training is fine."
Horikita Suzune pressed her lips together and raised her remaining concern:
"But we shouldn't have too many people on leave. Otherwise, if those who actually had the ability to fight for the top three spots — and claim the resurrection reward — slip up because they skimped on revision…"
"That's a price too steep to pay."
Ayanokoji shook his head again, cutting her off:
"Either way, the resurrection reward from the midterm is capped at three slots. As long as those three slots end up in the hands of students from our school, there's no real 'loss' to speak of."
He simply looked at Horikita Suzune with calm, steady eyes:
"Besides — I don't think one extra life is enough to compensate for the combat experience a weaker person is missing. Without the strength to back it up… it's just one more death, nothing more."
At that, Horikita Suzune went completely silent.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had only been stating facts. He hadn't been deliberately targeting anyone.
But for a girl who had taken hit after hit recently and whose nerves were stretched to breaking point, those words were impossible not to read between the lines — and map directly onto herself.
Chris, of course, understood exactly what kind of internal spiral Horikita was caught in right now.
He didn't even need the Omniscient Eye's mind-reading ability. One glance at the tight line of her jaw told him everything.
She'd fallen back into it — the same loop. I'm dragging my brother down. I can't protect anyone.
Still, haste makes waste.
In Chris's view, a certain amount of pressure wasn't entirely a bad thing.
Learning shame and turning it into drive beat the hell out of charging in blindly and dying for nothing.
It was like forging steel — only through repeated cycles of intense heat and heavy hammer blows could the impurities be driven out, leaving behind the sharpest possible edge.
Just as Chris was about to say something — anything to give the stalled Horikita Suzune a ladder to climb back down on —
The noise in the classroom fell abruptly quiet.
Then Karuizawa Kei came hurrying over, registration notebook clutched in her arms.
She bent down and murmured into Chris's ear:
"Chris… there's a white-haired senpai outside asking for you."
"White hair…" Chris raised an eyebrow. "Kiryuuin Fuka from second year?"
"Should I bring her in?" Karuizawa Kei asked, ever thoughtful.
"No need." Chris shook his head and stood up. "I'm not that close to her — if she's come looking for me out of the blue, it's probably about the Black Sphere exams. I'll go meet her outside."
With that, he headed for the door.
Karuizawa Kei nodded, and was just about to turn back to continue with the registration — when her eyes landed on Horikita Suzune's face, which was clearly off.
She hesitated. The two of them weren't exactly close, but she asked anyway:
"Horikita… you okay? You don't look great."
Horikita Suzune forced a smile.
"It's nothing. We were just discussing whether students confirmed for the upcoming Black Sphere exams and preliminary tests should apply for leave directly with the teacher and go focus on intensive training."
"People participating in the next preliminary test…"
Karuizawa Kei murmured those words back to herself — then her whole body stiffened.
Wait. Didn't I say before the last preliminary test that I'd be going next time…? So should I be applying for leave or not?
Fear crept back up her throat.
On instinct, she spun around to look for Chris.
Only to find he was already out the door.
...
As for Chris —
The moment he stepped out of the classroom, he discovered that Kiryuuin Fuka hadn't been waiting alone in the corridor.
She was leaning against the hallway wall, exchanging idle small talk with a smiling Kushida Kikyo.
Chris walked over with a mildly puzzled look.
"You two know each other?"
Kushida Kikyo waved her hands the moment she saw it was Chris, her voice soft and reassuring.
"Not really~"
"It's just that during the Uninhabited Island exam, we girls all had to go out hunting for capsules, right? To guard against spatial rifts that might suddenly open up, Kei took Morishita-san and the others along one route, so I shamelessly tagged along with Kiryuuin-senpai instead. After going through that together, I suppose we can at least exchange a few words~"
Kiryuuin Fuka swept a lock of silver-white hair back from her ear and said with a small pout:
"…More or less survived something together, I'd say."
Chris nodded and didn't press the point.
"So, senpai — you came all the way here, which means you have something specific in mind, right? If not, our class is still a mess right now. Hirata and the others are run ragged as it is."
As he spoke, he tilted his head toward the classroom, gesturing at the new-student registration zone, which currently resembled a busy open-air market.
Kiryuuin Fuka saw the hint and dropped the pretense.
She straightened up and came right out with it:
"Since you're being so direct, little kouhai, I'll skip the preamble."
"You were on good terms with Student Council President Horikita before, right? You two exchanged Black Sphere intel pretty regularly?"
Chris gave a small "mm" and waited.
Kiryuuin Fuka continued:
"Then, given that his current status is… unknown — I need a stable channel for accessing Black Sphere intel from your first-year side."
Chris understood immediately.
"So you picked me?"
"Still… now that President Horikita has spread Ripple Breathing throughout the whole school, even without him around, Nagumo Miyabi is fully in the Student Council — surely he could pick up where things left off."
"You don't have to go the long way round to find me, do you?"
Hearing the name "Nagumo Miyabi" paired with "on good terms with President Horikita," Kiryuuin Fuka looked as though she'd just heard the punchline of a joke — she actually laughed, completely unselfconsciously.
"Ha? Nagumo Miyabi on good terms with President Horikita?"
"Kouhai, you really do have a gift for comedy."
"Well… in certain respects, I suppose they got along."
Kiryuuin reined in her laughter and dabbed at the corner of her eye — which was dry.
"Nagumo Miyabi is soft-hearted. I can't stand his way of doing things, so even if it means going the long way round, I'd rather work with you, little kouhai — you at least don't make my eyes hurt."
"What do you think of my reasoning?"
Chris clicked his tongue thoughtfully.
"Fair enough… Sharing intel is just mutual exchange. It's not like it's anything shameful."
"By the way — didn't you add me on LINE already? Couldn't you have just texted? Why make the trip in person?"
Kiryuuin Fuka pressed her lips together, pointed upward, and said:
"I don't like being watched."
"Anyway. About the Black Sphere's rules — there's something I want to ask. I wasn't sure if you had already confirmed it with GANTZ."
Chris looked up.
"What question?"
Kiryuuin Fuka lowered her voice and asked:
"If we resurrect someone who's been declared dead — the points they accumulated during exams before their death… would those be wiped by the system after resurrection?"
Chris nodded in understanding.
"We did ask that one. GANTZ's answer was… no, they wouldn't be."
He paused, glancing at Kiryuuin:
"Though — given that the President hasn't been resurrected… you probably didn't get around to asking GANTZ at the time."
"If you can, keep this intel to yourself for now. Don't go telling the others just yet."
Kiryuuin Fuka raised an eyebrow.
"From the way you're talking… Tachibana Akane has already come to you privately, hasn't she?"
Chris gave a frank nod.
Kiryuuin let out a long sigh. Something complicated flickered in her eyes.
"Understood. I get what you mean."
"But kouhai — haven't you considered that the truth is like fire in a paper bag? It can never be contained forever. Sooner or later it's going to blow."
"When it does, the friction caused by the information gap might end up destroying whatever trust the upperclassmen have worked so hard to build."
Chris gave a careless shrug.
"We'll deal with that when we get there."
"I'm not that familiar with you, senpai, but my impression of President Horikita is decent. He asked me to look out for his secretary before he left — and that's something I'm willing to take seriously."
"Besides… he hasn't been declared dead yet, has he? Maybe you'll manage to pull him back in the next exam. Who can say?"
Kiryuuin Fuka gave neither agreement nor disagreement. She didn't say anything more — just gave a small wave and turned to leave.
"Maybe so. I'll take that as a good omen, then."
...
Watching Kiryuuin Fuka's easy, unhurried departure.
Kushida Kikyo — who had been standing dutifully to the side the entire time like a piece of very polite furniture — could no longer hold back the panic that had been building inside her.
She inched closer to Chris, fingers twisting together over her chest, and spoke with a faint tremor in her voice:
"Um… Chris-kun."
"What do you think — if every future Black Sphere exam ends up like the midterm's Uninhabited Island exam… not only insanely difficult, but spilling over to affect the whole school every time… what are we supposed to do?"
Chris tilted his head to look at her.
"What can you do? Just grit your teeth and deal with it."
"Aside from the strongest fighters in each class who might survive on the strength of their equipment — if the difficulty keeps ramping up at this rate, it won't be many exams before there's a full-scale turnover of the student body."
Kushida Kikyo's expression went through several visible changes in quick succession.
She bit her lip, clearly fighting through some enormous internal battle, then looked up and ventured:
"Then… if I start changing now, if I start training as hard as I can… do I still have a chance of making it out alive?"
Chris scratched the back of his head.
"What are you panicking about? Don't you have the three lives the Black Sphere granted you at the start?"
"As long as you don't do something spectacularly stupid, your odds of surviving are way higher than the average person's. You're basically born at the top of the food chain here—"
Chris didn't get to finish.
"Shh—!"
Kushida Kikyo shot up onto her tiptoes and clapped one small, pale hand firmly over Chris's mouth.
Under his puzzled gaze.
Kushida Kikyo released him as if she'd touched a live wire, then darted a sharp look around the corridor.
Once she was satisfied no one was within earshot, she leaned close to his ear and whispered in a voice barely louder than a breath:
"Um… Chris-kun, keep your voice down, please!"
"The thing is… even now I'm still not entirely sure whether I actually have the special treatment of a 'fixed player'…"
"What if it's just wishful thinking on my part? That's exactly why I've never been able to commit to throwing myself into the exam for real!"
Chris looked at her with mild exasperation.
"At least as things currently stand, the rules the Black Sphere states are absolute and inviolable."
"Since you were pulled into the exam alongside the rest of us from the very beginning, in the system's eyes you're categorized the same as us."
Kushida Kikyo's hands knotted and unknotted in front of her, over and over, her eyes swimming with conflict.
"I'd already figured that much… but I just can't bring myself to confirm it. To be precise—"
She lowered her head. Her voice took on the faintest hint of tears.
"I'm genuinely a little scared of dying…"
Chris's eyebrow went up. Now he had a clear read on her.
The situation was deteriorating fast enough that her old playbook — playing both sides, staying safely in the back as a cheerleader — wasn't viable anymore.
So she'd decided to take a page from Karuizawa Kei's book and come latch onto him.
Now, Chris was willing to extend a certain degree of protection to Kushida Kikyo in the early stages of the game.
But that didn't mean she was entitled to absolute immunity.
Want to latch on? Fine.
But you'd better prove you're worth saving first.
Otherwise, what's the point of keeping those extra lives in reserve for her?
He might as well transfer them to Karuizawa Kei.
Chris let a cool edge creep into his tone.
"In this exam, the ones who are most afraid of dying — just like the ones who have no fear of dying at all — have always been the first to go."
"If you want to keep living for the long haul, you need both a reverence for life and the courage to stare down the unknown."
He looked down at her from where he stood:
"Whether you like it or not, that's something you have no choice but to force yourself to adapt to. Right now."
"If you're asking me whether it's too late to start working hard?"
"All I can say is… you'd better start now. Because you were born luckier than most of the people here. Don't use that luck as an excuse to stay weak."
With that, Chris didn't spare another glance at Kushida Kikyo's reaction. He turned and walked straight back into the classroom.
Leaving Kushida Kikyo alone in the empty corridor, staring after his retreating figure in a daze.
Just then — not far away — Hasebe Haruka, who had just returned from the restroom and caught the tail end of the exchange, noticed Kushida's hollow expression and wandered over curiously.
"Kikyo… what's wrong? You don't look right."
The familiar voice snapped her back to reality.
Kushida Kikyo's expression shifted in an instant — like a mask snapping back into place — and she was all warmth and healing smiles again.
"Ah! It's nothing~"
"I just… something Chris-kun said a moment ago made me realize something important…"
She balled her hands into fists, striking a small, adorable pose of self-encouragement:
"Right! I can't keep letting Kei and Horikita-san take all the hits up front to protect everyone! As a member of this class, I have to start pulling my weight too!"
Matsushita Chiaki, who had overheard the whole thing, gave a nod.
She knew Kushida was putting on at least some performance. But being willing to stand up and say it out loud was still a step forward.
"Do your best, Kushida."
—
After the second period ended.
Having heard from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka that Nanase Tsubasa's proposal was workable, Hirata Yousuke moved quickly.
He rounded up not only Chris and Ayanokoji — the core combat assets — but also Matsushita Chiaki and Koenji Rokusuke, both of whom had earned extra lives from the preliminary test.
In a quiet corner at the back of the classroom, Hirata gave a brief rundown of how the leave application process would work.
When no one raised any objections, he went directly to the staff office to find Chabashira Sae and submit the formal application.
After hearing Hirata's report, Chabashira Sae hesitated for a moment.
Then she picked up her pen and, without refusing, signed off on it.
It made sense. People are selfish creatures at heart.
No matter how cold-blooded she might seem, her blood still ran warm.
She was someone the Black Sphere had already marked.
If the day came when it chose her again — and not in the merchant role with its infinite resurrection privileges —
When that happened, what could she, a teacher who couldn't even throw a decent punch, possibly do on her own?
Help others, and you help yourself.
This investment was one she had to make.
And so.
When the bell rang for the next class and the new students filtered back to their seats —
They were horrified to find that several desks were empty. Hirata Yousuke's included.
The disappearance sent the new students into immediate panic.
Someone discreetly sidled up to Karuizawa Kei and hissed in a hushed, urgent voice:
"Karuizawa-san! What's going on?! Where did the class rep and the others go?!"
"Don't tell me… don't tell me a Black Sphere exam is about to start again?!"
Karuizawa Kei let out a tired sigh, but forced herself to explain with patience she didn't really have:
"Calm down — the next Black Sphere exam is still a few days away…"
"Hirata and the others are doing targeted training for the upcoming exam. Their grades are strong enough that failing academically isn't a concern, so they went ahead and filed for an extended leave with Chabashira-sensei."
She paused, clocking the hungry, desperate looks in the new students' eyes, and added:
"Actually, if you want to go train too, you're welcome to apply for leave from Chabashira-sensei as well."
"But as new students, my personal advice would be… sit tight in the classroom for now and catch up on whatever coursework you've fallen behind on first."
Karuizawa Kei's voice went flat.
"Because when the final exams roll around — if you fail, and the system forces a penalty on you… don't expect anyone to have the spare energy to come and save you."
That warning sent the few inquiring new students scurrying back to their seats.
Nanase Tsubasa, who had watched the whole exchange, waited until after class.
Then she walked directly over to Horikita Suzune — who was still sitting upright in her seat, scribbling notes with focused attention.
"Horikita-senpai."
Nanase Tsubasa looked at the thick notebook at her side and asked in puzzlement:
"Aren't you in the top tier of the whole year academically? If failing isn't a concern…"
"Why didn't you go take leave with Chris-senpai and the others to train?"
Horikita Suzune's pen paused — barely a beat.
Without looking up, she answered in her characteristic cool, composed voice:
"Because there are still a lot of students in this class who can't follow even the basics. They'll need extra tutoring to scrape through the final exams alive."
"And besides…"
Horikita Suzune turned a page. Her pen scratched steadily across the paper.
"If Chris and the others throw themselves fully into training, they'll inevitably fall behind on coursework."
"I have to get ahead of all the material now — take notes for every subject — so they have something to cram from in the final stretch before exams."
"This, too, is a way of fighting."
Nanase Tsubasa listened, nodded thoughtfully, and returned to her own seat.
She could hear that Horikita Suzune's words were genuine — there was no lie in them.
But with her sharp intuition, she also felt, without any doubt, that the reasons keeping Horikita Suzune here were not limited to what she'd said.
What is she running from?
Senpai, are you really okay?
Nanase Tsubasa rested a hand on the open page of her textbook, her gaze drifting toward the window.
I really can't figure it out…
Maybe I should go ask Chris-senpai.
____
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