The Backstory: The Genesis of the Disaster

Everything started three days before the "Prologue," in a place Kaito Sato would have done anything to avoid: the VIP cafeteria on the school roof, meant only for the top students.

Rika Nakamura took a sip of her imported Darjeeling tea and looked over the courtyard like a general checking her troops. "It’s boring," she said, putting her cup down with a sharp clink. "It’s all too easy."

Sitting across from her, Sakura Hayashi balanced a basketball on her finger, her legs propped up on the table. "What are you talking about, Princess? Boys falling at your feet?"

"Exactly," Rika said, brushing her perfect blonde hair back. "I just look at a guy for three seconds, and he starts stammering and asking for my LINE ID. There’s no challenge. No conquest. They’re all conquered already."

Sakura laughed and caught the ball in mid-air. "Well, except for one."

Rika narrowed her eyes. "Who?" "Kaito Sato, in your class. The guy with glasses who always looks like he’s doing math in his head while he walks."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Sato? Come on. Everyone says he plays for the other team. He’s immune."

"Are you sure?" Sakura leaned in with a sly grin. "Or maybe he’s just the only one the 'Great Rika' can’t win over? I heard he’s not gay. I heard he’s just... above everyone else. No one matches him."

Of course, Sakura was making it up. She hadn’t heard any of that, but she knew just how to get under Rika’s skin.

Rika’s pride flared. "Are you saying I couldn't make him fall in love?"

"I’m saying," Sakura went on, "that I bet 50,000 Yen you can’t get him to say 'I like you' by the end of the semester. I could do it in a week with my approach."

Rika stood up quickly, making the table shake. "I accept the bet, Hayashi. But let’s make it more interesting. The loser has to confess their love to the janitor in front of everyone at the morning assembly."

Sakura hesitated for a moment, but her competitive side took over. 

"Deal."

Just then, a shadow fell over the table.

Mio Fujimoto, the girl from Class 2-C who looked like she belonged in a Tim Burton movie, stepped out from behind a plant. "Interesting..." Mio whispered in a ghostly voice. "I sense an aura of despair around that boy. If I joined in too... could I feed on his anguish?"

Rika and Sakura glanced at each other. More competition meant more to win. "Go ahead, little witch," Rika said with a confident smile. "But get your wallets ready. Kaito Sato will fall. He’ll be the one begging me to go out."

None of them realized that stone walls didn’t protect the "fortress" they wanted to conquer, but by a moat of pure social anxiety and some very flawed logic.

"Go ahead, little witch," Rika said with an arrogant smile. "But get your wallets ready. Kaito Sato will fall. And he will be the one begging me to go out."

"Is there no room at the table for me?"

A high-pitched, slightly off-key laugh interrupted the dramatic moment. 

Yui Takahashi popped up from under the VIP cafeteria table, a pink-stained paintbrush between her teeth and a smudge of acrylic on the tip of her nose.

 No one knew how long she had been under there, likely busy painting an illegal mural on the table legs.

"Takahashi! That’s gross, get out of there!" Rika exclaimed, pulling her legs back as if she’d seen a particularly eccentric rat.

Yui leaped to her feet with unsettling agility, dusting off her stained apron.

"I heard 'bet,' 'money,' and 'Kaito Sato.' You know I love impossible challenges. And besides..." she winked at Sakura, "that boy has a bone structure that screams 'draw me like one of your French girls.' If I have to make him fall in love just to get a private model, I’m in."

Sakura sighed, resigned. "Yui, he thinks we’re all mentally ill. I don’t think he’s interested in your body art."

"Oh, he will be. So, is the bet open to four then?" Yui placed a blue-paint-stained hand on Rika’s shoulder. Rika let out a groan of pure horror at the sight of the smudge on her designer blazer. "Winner takes the cash and the trophy. Loser... well, the janitor is waiting for that public confession, right?"

The four girls looked at each other. It was official. The most dangerous quartet in school had just put a bounty on Kaito Sato’s mental health.

None of them knew that the "fortress" they were about to attack wasn't defended by stone walls, but by a moat of pure social anxiety and totally flawed deductive reasoning.