Watching Ichinose Honami bolt from the scene like a frightened animal, Karuizawa Kei — even without a single romantic relationship to her name — immediately grasped the gravity of what had just happened.
She turned to look at Chris.
He had one brow slightly raised, seemingly caught off guard by Ichinose's sudden reaction.
Seeing him still hesitating, Karuizawa Kei quickly reached out and gave his arm a gentle poke with her fingertip, dropping her voice to a low prompt:
"Hey... don't you want to go after her? I'm fine, really."
Chris heard her out, then drew his gaze back.
He thought it over carefully — and ultimately shook his head. "No need."
"Ichinose has a habit of tunneling sometimes, sure — but she's not the type to take that out on other people over something like this."
"If she really wants answers, she'll come and ask herself once she's cooled down. She's nothing like Horikita — she doesn't bottle everything up inside and go full stubborn mule about it."
Hearing that, Karuizawa Kei let out a small breath of relief.
But just to be safe, she made up her mind right then and there.
The moment they parted ways, she was going straight to find Ichinose and clear the air — face to face!
Even if it meant... exposing her own most pathetic little secret.
Because the fact was, as one of the four permanent fixtures of the Black Sphere exams, Ichinose Honami was — without question — a far more critical piece to Chris than Horikita Suzune was right now.
Horikita Suzune could be left to find her footing on her own, slowly...
But Ichinose? Absolutely not!
Not to mention — Ichinose still had a considerable pile of unused S-points sitting on her account.
If a silly emotional misunderstanding like this actually drove a wedge between them...
Then the sin would be unforgivable. Not even ritual self-disembowelment could atone for it.
It would be the catastrophic failure of her entire career as a parasite!
She would not allow it. Not a chance.
She and Chris went their separate ways.
After confirming over LINE with Hirata Yousuke that she would be joining the next preliminary trial, Karuizawa Kei set off at a dead sprint to track down Ichinose Honami and sort things out.
But since Ichinose's LINE messages kept sitting on unread, she had no choice but to first reach out to Amikura Mako — someone she'd formed a genuine life-or-death bond with back on the uninhabited island — and ask her to act as a go-between.
Amikura Mako had witnessed firsthand how thoroughly Karuizawa Kei had leaned on Chris during that island exam. So the moment she saw Karuizawa running around in this frantic state, she put two and two together and figured something unusual must be going on with Ichinose.
Amikura Mako was always the perceptive, accommodating type. She had no intention of standing in the way, and she quickly arranged for Karuizawa to meet with Ichinose.
Except — before Karuizawa Kei could pull Ichinose aside somewhere private to explain everything in full —
Buzz buzz——!
The phones tucked into both girls' skirt pockets vibrated at exactly the same moment.
Ichinose Honami paused mid-step and spoke softly:
"Karuizawa-san, let's check our messages first."
"When both phones go off at the same time like that, it could be an emergency notice from the school, right?"
Karuizawa Kei exhaled and waved it off. "Probably not... We literally just wrapped up the uninhabited island exam. Even if the school's sending something now, it can't be anything major — most likely just another round of point bonuses or whatever."
She said it, but inwardly she was worried it might be a directive from Chris — so she dutifully fished out her phone to check.
Then, the moment she read what was on the screen, her voice shrank to almost nothing.
It was indeed an official school notification. And it was indeed distributing some kind of benefit.
Just... not one that was easy to feel good about.
The message read:
[In light of the large-scale joint uninhabited island exam conducted this week, regular preliminary trials and special exams were not held. It has therefore been decided that these will be made up this Saturday and Sunday.]
[Simultaneously, as a reward for all students successfully completing the first stage of the large-scale trial, the school has reached an agreement with the GANTZ system to relax access conditions to the training facilities.]
[Effective immediately, all students may apply to their respective homeroom teachers to gain temporary access to the 「Class Assessment Points」. These points can be used at the ratio of 「10 Class Assessment Points : 1 minute of real-world time」 to exchange for entry into the 'Hyperbolic Time Chamber' for cultivation training.]
[Note 1: The Hyperbolic Time Chamber is a dedicated GANTZ-system training facility. Within it, students may freely use the basic equipment provided complimentary for special exams (including X-GUNs, Y-GUNs, combat blades, etc.) for simulated practice; personal equipment purchased from the GANTZ store or the Tenkoukai's mysterious merchant may also be used.]
[Note 2: When entering the Time Chamber in a group, the fee increases proportionally per person. However, during training inside the Chamber, participants will experience slowed ageing, reduced pain sensitivity, and will not suffer from hunger or fatigue. Any injuries sustained will recover rapidly.]
[Note 3: Death during simulated combat within the Time Chamber will force ejection, but will NOT count toward the system's death tally.]
[This access is granted by GANTZ as an incentive to all survivors. For your own safety, and to protect your world, please continue to strive forward.]
Having read through the entire message carefully, Karuizawa Kei swallowed with some difficulty.
"Saturday and Sunday... meaning we're back in a Black Sphere exam tomorrow?!"
Ichinose Honami's expression was equally grave:
"Going by the pattern we've seen so far — it looks like it. Saturday would be for us first-years, Sunday for the upperclassmen."
"And even..." Ichinose pressed her lips together, adding an even grimmer possibility: "If GANTZ decides to push its luck, we might reach next Monday only to immediately start gearing up for another round of preliminary trials and Black Sphere exams."
Karuizawa Kei pursed her lips, her pretty face scrunching into a knot.
She'd only just confirmed this afternoon that she'd be joining the upcoming preliminary trial.
But... they'd just finalized the roster today, and now she was being dragged onto the field tomorrow?!
Zero psychological buffer time. That was frankly terrifying.
Seeing the colour drain from Karuizawa Kei's face, Ichinose Honami stepped forward and offered quiet reassurance:
"It'll be alright, Karuizawa-san."
"Everyone has experience dealing with the exams now, and you still have the Combat Suit as your trump card. Even if something unexpected happens during the trial, I'm sure you'll be able to keep yourself safe without too much trouble."
"I'm actually more worried about Housen-san and the others who don't have Combat Suits — the newcomers... I should go and try to talk them through it again."
Ichinose Honami turned to leave — then stopped short.
She'd just remembered: Karuizawa Kei had specifically asked Amikura Mako to arrange this meeting. That meant she had something personal to say.
She turned back around and looked at Karuizawa with a questioning tilt of her head:
"Right — Karuizawa-san. You came looking for me in such a hurry. Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"
Karuizawa Kei snapped back to the present.
She drew a deep breath, as though bracing herself:
"Actually, I wanted to explain... about this afternoon. The hugging Chris thing..."
"Ichinose — we're really not at the stage you're imagining."
The girl's voice grew smaller as she went on:
"It's just... Chris mentioned that when he was talking to Horikita, he brought up how truly embracing Ripple Breathing means learning to accept your real self first. And I — I actually am really weak, deep down. Not as strong as I act on the outside."
"I was just... too scared. So I wanted to find a little bit of safety in him. That's all it was — I just... wanted to hug him."
Karuizawa Kei lifted her head, rushing to add:
"We haven't even confirmed what we actually are to each other yet!"
"If you don't like it — I'll be more careful from now on..."
Ichinose Honami watched the girl standing before her — the girl who had steeled herself and stripped back her own scars to bare them — and felt a quiet wave of self-reproach rise in her chest.
After a long silence, she let out a soft sigh.
The truth was — Ichinose already knew the fundamental nature of the relationship between Karuizawa Kei and Chris.
After all, when Karuizawa Kei had first gone to the rooftop door to pledge her loyalty to Chris, Ichinose had been just on the other side of that door — she'd heard every word with perfect clarity.
And that was precisely why, after leaving the gymnasium that afternoon, once rational thought had reclaimed her mind and she'd replayed the whole thing — Ichinose had more or less pieced together what had really happened.
Chris had kept his hands at his sides the entire time, hadn't he? Not a single action that crossed any line.
It had been entirely one-sided — Karuizawa Kei seeking something for herself.
She had let a flash of possessiveness colour everything and leapt to the wrong conclusion.
Moreover — the relationship she herself had with Chris was, at its core, nothing more than that of a teacher and student, a senior and a junior.
What standing did she have? What position gave her the right to be angry...?
The more she chased that thread of thought, the more the bitterness she'd barely managed to suppress threatened to surge back up.
Ichinose Honami quickly shook her head, flinging those stray thoughts out of her mind.
She broke into a smile:
"No, no — actually, I'm the one who should be apologizing..."
"I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions without understanding the situation, and I misread the whole thing on my own. And then you came all this way to apologize and explain something so personal — I'm truly sorry for that."
Hearing that, Karuizawa Kei blinked in genuine surprise.
Given the low-pressure-front atmosphere Ichinose had been radiating when she left this afternoon, Karuizawa had half-expected to walk into the kind of confrontation you'd have with a girlfriend who just caught you cheating.
So why, the moment she came here to apologize, was it the other girl who turned around and started comforting her...?
This personality — was she just too much of a pushover?!
Karuizawa Kei was thoroughly baffled.
But if Ichinose was saying it like that — and she clearly wasn't lying — then this ticking time bomb had been defused, right?
With that thought, Karuizawa Kei cautiously ventured: "Well, since we've cleared the air... I'll head back then?"
Ichinose Honami gave a nod.
But just as Karuizawa turned to leave, she suddenly called out:
"Actually — Karuizawa-san."
"Now that class assessment points can be used to unlock the Hyperbolic Time Chamber as a training space, and the trial is starting tomorrow afternoon —"
"Could you please pass a message along to senpai for me? I'd like everyone who's participating in the preliminary trial to gather inside the Time Chamber first, get a feel for the Black Sphere equipment, and work out our combat strategy in advance — so we're not scrambling the moment we step onto the field."
Karuizawa Kei replied without missing a beat: "No problem! Leave it to me!"
Watching the visibly relieved set of Karuizawa Kei's shoulders as she walked away, Ichinose Honami stood where she was and reached up to gently rub her slightly throbbing temple. She was quiet for a long moment, just staring.
This isn't the time to be getting jealous.
As long as everyone gets to walk out of this alive... that's enough. As for everything else — let it be.
The following day.
Having each obtained temporary access to their respective class's assessment points from their homeroom teachers, the full group — Chris and Ichinose included — had now assembled.
Ichinose quietly counted heads. Satisfied that everyone was present, she was the first to speak:
"The trial and the main exam are this afternoon. Let's get our plan straight first, then head into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber together to practice — that way we're not wasting time butting heads once we're already inside."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded, then swept his gaze across the room.
Aside from the four permanent fixtures — Chris, Ichinose, Sakayanagi, and Ryuuen — practically everyone confirmed for the afternoon's preliminary trial and main exam was here.
The breakdown was as follows:
Sakayanagi's class had fielded: Kamuro Masumi, Morishita Ai, Katsuragi Kohei, Kito Hayabusa, plus one unfamiliar face.
Ryuuen's class had: Ishizaki Daichi, Yagami Takuya, and three more who'd clearly been press-ganged into it.
Ichinose's class had: Amanatsu Kazuha, Amikura Mako, Housen Kazutomi, and two more fillers.
Hirata's side was by far the most stacked: Koenji Rokusuke, Hirata Yousuke, Karuizawa Kei, newly transferred Nanase Tsubasa, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka — who had volunteered himself.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka pulled his attention back and cut straight to the point:
"Chabashira-sensei informed us this morning that the preliminary trial is still a four-person-per-class format. So for now, let's assume this trial runs on similar rules to last time's King of Clubs exam."
"As for the high-value items scattered around the field that generate equipment points — I'm not going to ask anyone to hold back on those. First come, first served — compete on your own merits."
"However!"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's tone dropped a notch:
"The previous ruleset made it explicit that touching the highest-scoring item immediately triggers an early launch of the main exam."
"So what I'm asking is this — once we've located the mysterious merchant inside the trial field and everyone has had a chance to exchange for their survival gear, only then do we touch that item and kick off the main exam."
As he said it, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka let his eyes drift — deliberately — toward Amanatsu Kazuha in the crowd.
The warning couldn't have been clearer.
Amanatsu Kazuha caught the look and spread her hands with an expression of pure innocence:
"Why are you looking at me?"
"I'm a main-exam participant this round — what happens inside the trial field is out of my hands. I can't interfere with your decisions."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka continued:
"Second point. Once the main exam begins, any spare basic Black Sphere equipment will be temporarily handed over to you trial participants."
"After that, I'll be leading the group for coordinated monster hunting."
"When the time comes, I need everyone to follow orders. No rushing ahead to grab glory — recklessness just leads to pointless casualties. That hurts you individually, and it's a massive loss to the entire main-exam team."
Before most of the room had even finished processing those instructions —
"Hah!"
Housen Kazutomi, standing behind Ichinose, let out a cold, contemptuous laugh.
He fixed Ayanokoji with a look of casual disdain and jabbed:
"Hey, kid."
"You're talking like you own the place. Means you're absolutely confident in your own strength — that about right?"
Seeing a confrontation about to ignite, Ichinose was just opening her mouth to cut in and remind Housen Kazutomi — this is the Ayanokoji Kiyotaka who can transform into a fifteen-metre giant — when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka beat her to it.
"As the guarantor for this operation — yes, I have that confidence."
"Once we're inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I'll be sparring as a training partner. You'll see my strength with your own eyes."
"Hope your backbone turns out to be as solid as your mouth." Housen Kazutomi gave a cold snort.
Chris, sensing the tension rising steadily, stepped in at exactly the right moment:
"I've got plenty of faith in Ayanokoji's ability. Besides — anything goes in the Time Chamber, every injury heals clean. You two can go at it and see who's bluffing."
"That said..."
Chris shifted gears and added a note of practicality:
"Six people per class for a full day inside runs to sixty class assessment points. It's not a crushing cost given what we're working with — but let's not bleed it recklessly."
"We still need to think about the classmates who aren't in the exam, and on top of that, we might be heading straight into another standard Black Sphere exam next Monday..."
Sakayanagi Arisu tilted her chin up slightly, offering a small smile from the sidelines:
"Actually, setting aside those of us who need to put in serious practice for the main exam —"
"The trial participants really only need a day or two inside to familiarize themselves with how the basic Black Sphere equipment works."
"They won't be sent to the front lines against anything powerful anyway. As long as they have the bare minimum self-preservation ability and don't throw their lives away carelessly — that's sufficient."
Ryuuen Kakeru crossed his arms from nearby and gave his cold endorsement:
"Agreed. Give the trial participants two days — forty points. Give the remaining main-exam participants six days."
"That's a total cost of two hundred and eighty class assessment points per class. Completely acceptable. Hell, what we earn back from this exam will make that look like pocket change."
Chris heard that out and glanced at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Hirata Yousuke in turn.
Seeing them both give a small nod — no objections — Chris settled the matter.
"Then it's decided. Let's begin the special training."
With that, he raised his wrist and brought up the Black Sphere watch display.
His fingers moved quickly across the screen.
A moment later, Sakayanagi Arisu, Ryuuen Kakeru, and Ichinose Honami — each holding access rights to their respective class's assessment points — raised their own Black Sphere watches and tapped the confirmation prompt that had appeared.
In an instant —
The twenty-plus people present vanished from where they stood.
A brief flash of disorientation —
And they found themselves inside a pure-white training space the size of a full regulation football pitch.
The floor and walls were composed of some unknown but unmistakably hard material. There was no visible light source overhead, yet the entire space was as bright as noon.
Chris looked at the floating control panel hovering before him and let his eyebrows rise in performed surprise:
"Oh — you can actually hand-pick the training environment?"
"This Black Sphere tech is genuinely something else."
Hirata Yousuke stared at the white expanse around him and couldn't help a stunned click of his tongue:
"A full day in here equals just one minute in the outside world... This is straight out of a sci-fi film. Actual science fiction made real."
"No matter how many times you go through a teleport like that, it never stops feeling impossible."
Sakayanagi Arisu drifted to Chris's side with a quiet, composed smile:
"What's there to be surprised about?"
"The fact that the Black Sphere can provide a facility like this only means this sort of thing is completely unremarkable to the civilization behind it."
"Besides — if it can cross the dimensions between worlds... possessing methods that defy our common understanding is the most natural thing imaginable."
Ryuuen Kakeru cut impatiently across the educational interlude with a crack of his neck:
"Alright, enough standing around gawking like a bunch of country bumpkins. We're burning time."
"Time is money in here. We came to work — so let's work."
Chris raised a hand, broadcasting the control panel's permissions to everyone in the room:
"I've opened the environment-building access to all of you."
"Ruins, forest, shopping mall — whatever terrain you want, find a control panel and set it yourself."
"One more thing to note — the basic equipment the Black Sphere provides, the X-GUN and Y-GUN, can apparently be pulled directly from your watch as training tools."
At that, newcomers like Yagami Takuya and Nanase Tsubasa — who had essentially zero experience with any of this — looked down almost in unison and began curiously examining the Black Sphere watches strapped to their wrists.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, meanwhile, had no interest in any of that.
He moved through the crowd without ceremony and walked straight up to Chris.
"Since we're here to show the newcomers what reality looks like —"
"Chris. Let's go a round."
"I'm genuinely curious about your real ability."
"And while we're at it — let's give the new people a shot in the arm. Something to anchor their confidence."
Before he'd even finished speaking —
Sakayanagi Arisu and Ichinose Honami — who had already retrieved their respective [Romantic Cannon] and [Myriad Soaring Wings] from their Black Sphere watches — couldn't help but cut their eyes toward him.
Karuizawa Kei pressed her lips tightly together.
She trusted Chris — she did. But looking at the easy confidence radiating off Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, a quiet knot of worry formed in her chest regardless.
Because the loadout Ayanokoji was carrying was unambiguously top-tier.
Unlike Karuizawa's gnawing anxiety — Amanatsu Kazuha, standing not far away, was already grinning and rubbing her chin, fanning the flames with shameless delight:
"On one side — one hundred and sixty S-points' worth of high-end gear, universally acknowledged as the strongest. On the other — the Titan serum and Parasyte fusion, the pinnacle of human body modification!"
"Which one comes out on top? We're about to find out!"
Chris glanced sidelong at Amanatsu, unbothered by her stirring the pot.
He turned back to Ayanokoji and extended his right hand:
"Fair warning upfront — we go until one of us yields. Clean stop."
"Otherwise, if you get thrown out of the Time Chamber entirely, that's just a waste of everyone's points."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka reached out and clasped his hand.
"Then let's find out."
"Even going all-out... I don't think I'll lose to you by much."
— End of Chapter —
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