Black Market (cont.)

While most students booked it out of class the moment the final bell rang, Mino Ruri always sat by her desk and took her time to pack her things. After all, when your after-school routine involved going straight to your room with no detours, you could afford a leisurely pace—there weren’t friends or appointments or club schedules you needed to adhere to.

I understood this, because I was just like her.

Even if my situation was the result of slightly different circumstances, I felt a strange sense of kindredness whenever I observed Mino Ruri.

Both of us loners, even if born from different geneses.

Both of us reclusive, even if one of us had fabricated that guise.

Still, I didn’t have time to feel guilty about approaching an introvert and a self-declared homebody. The Special Project was forcing my hand. And so, fifteen minutes after the final school bell rang, I slid open the door to Classroom 1-F looking for Mino Ruri.

That was when I saw a very unpleasant sight.

Standing in between the front door and the teacher’s desk—a girl with a ponytail.

“Hey, Emi,” I said.

“Oh… Kohei-kun.”

Sakura forced out a sheepish smile as she greeted me.

From the looks of the bag slung over her shoulder, she’d just wrapped up whatever she was doing and was about to leave. The only other person I glimpsed was Mino Ruri staring out of her window in a far corner of the classroom.

So, the two of them had been talking before I entered.

“What are you doing at school? Didn’t you take the day off?” Sakura asked.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just getting my tablet.”

“Ahaha.” Sakura averted her gaze as she laughed. “I see. Well, it was nice to see you. If that’s all, I need to go…”

“And?”

“.…..”

She opted to remain silent as she brushed past me.

“You must be busy, huh?”

“...Yeah, kinda.”

“No worries. I understand.”

I stepped aside and held the door open for her.

It wasn’t like I needed to talk to Sakura now.

If her goal was to make it to Class A… no, if Watanabe’s goal was to make it to Class A—eventually, on their own accord, they would be the ones approaching me to make amends.

“Let’s have a good Special Project, Emi. See you in class next week.”

“...See you, Mizuhara-kun.”

She walked off at her usual pace.

They say that people discard their masks in times of adversity, but even that switch from Kohei to Mizuhara felt so disgustingly intentional it took all I had for my face to not twitch.

If Sakura Emi wanted to lie to me, I wished that she would continue lying consistently.

If she continued lying consistently, maybe I would've eventually believed it to be the truth.

If I believed it to be the truth, then maybe I would've found it in myself to forgive her.

Well, not that I had time to waste thinking about this.

In the meantime, I turned back my attention to the classroom to where a bespectacled girl was sitting. She was looking towards the horizon with a featureless look—why she might have found the view pretty, I'm not sure, since the only views in Kitazawa were buildings, low-lying vegetation and unnerving shades of grey.

Nevertheless, she was staring out of the window—and nevertheless, I had to interrupt her cloud gazing.

“Mino-san, do you have a moment?” I called out.

No response.

Not even a tilt of her head in my direction.

Of course, all of that was expected.

If you wanted someone to leave you alone, short of telling them to screw off to their face, ignoring them was the best option. Anyone who possessed a modicum of social awareness would go away after seeing someone pretend to be deaf… unless they really needed something.

“Sorry, Mino-san. This is really important.”

I took the seat next to hers. Surprisingly enough, she actually replied in quick order—albeit still staring out of the window.

“If it’s about the Special Project, I already have two people I’m voting for.”

Since being deaf didn’t work, she’d abandoned her strategy and upped the ante to ‘screw off’. For someone who was shorter than Mari, loved the colour pink, and always stared blankly at things… I was actually taken aback. She sounded much more assertive than I expected.

“...I see. Do you mind telling me who you’re voting for?”

“I do mind.”

“Could I pay you for it? 1,000 points per vote.”

Mino turned around—but rather than looking at me, she started to pack her bag.

“That’s a bluff. Point transfers are disabled.”

A rather surface-level of looking at things, but it’s not like she was wrong—I was bluffing. There was no way I'd pay her for something I would figure out by Saturday morning.

I’d just wanted to see her reaction to the word ‘points’.

It seemed Sakura had coached her well.

“If that’s all, then farewell, mister.”

Mino picked up her bag and started walking over to the back door of the classroom. Her posture was so stiff, her dark green hair didn’t sway as she walked—it just stayed completely static, almost like a metal wire had been strung through to hold it in place.

But really… Oji-san?

Part of me stayed silent because of that, but for the most part I was simply waiting for the best time to speak—after all, the puzzle pieces were fitting in my favour. I just needed to ensure my execution wasn’t fumbled.

Simply put, Mino’s stress was showing. No one in their right mind would disengage so bluntly in this situation: As the obvious favourite to get expelled, I was also one of the few who might realistically throw out deplorable votes—a good way to receive one of those parting shots would be to act like a dick towards me.

If Mino could think logically, she’d quickly work out that shutting me down politely was the optimal choice, even if she had no interest in hearing out my bargain. Moreover, if she were usually this rude, I’d have picked up on it by now—whether through Mari or Sakura or even my own observation, I’d have definitely expected it to some extent.

This was uncharted territory for Mino Ruri.

And therefore.

I could only conclude she was following someone else’s instructions desperately.

“It’s unfair, isn’t it?”

I spoke up just as Mino was about to open the door.

“Huh?”

“The tiebreaker they chose. Aesthetics? Why choose something like that? Something so intrinsic and unchangeable?”

“...If you’re going to waste my time, I think—”

“No, listen. If the school was really selecting students by merit, it would only make sense that they chose something else as the tiebreaker.”

Mino seemed to be drawn in by my statement, since she begrudgingly turned around to face me. “Go on.”

“Sure, natural talent plays a part in the other two categories, but they’re things that require substantially more effort. You can’t get perfect grades without putting in the requisite hours, and neither can you be a top-tier athlete without taking a consistent approach. This popularity contest is shafting people like you."

“......”

“I just think it would be sad if you got penalised, given how amazing you are at studies,” I said.

Mino Ruri.

A girl that studied so much, she managed to get an A for Academics.

In fact, she’d been so laser-focused on grades that she expended most of her points on optimising her study environment—after all, her food budget could be razor-thin since her roommate was so incredibly generous when it came to sharing ingredients.

So long as she turned down invitations to social gatherings, she could avoid spending any money—plus, it wasn’t like she wanted to be social in the first place. She was naturally introverted.

If only the school hadn’t picked Aesthetics, then maybe the help she’d afforded from Sakura Emi could carry her out of the bottom 10.

If only the school valued hard work rather than something mostly decided by birth.

If only Kitazawa hadn’t penalised her for simply preferring to stay indoors.

To be fair, I didn't care about any of this. I just needed her help.

“Um, mister. I would be inclined to believe what you’re saying, but don’t you have one of the worst grades in the cohort?”

...A minor oversight.

“......Sure. But my inferiority has nothing to do with this. What’s more important is that we can help each other, Mino-san.”

She brought her finger to her lips, briefly contemplating my offer—then shut it down before she’d even heard any specifics.

“While what you’re saying does speak to me… Emi-chan did warn that you would try something like this. I’m sorry, but I can’t trust you—it could just be another bluff.”

She extended a bow after finishing her sentence.

That meant it wasn’t Sakura Emi speaking through her as a mouthpiece, but rather, her genuine feelings on the situation. In that case…

“Sakura Emi won’t save you,” I said.

“Huh?”

“...No, it’s not that Sakura Emi won’t save you. It’s that she can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t tell her about your point situation, did you?”

“...What about my points?”

Mino began to adjust her school scarf over and over again, despite the fact it’d already been perfectly positioned.

Talk about a transparent nervous tic.

“When Sakura Emi or whoever promised that they would help you, did you tell them about how many points you had? Based on how she’s acting, I don’t think so.”

“......”

“Right now, Sakura thinks that facilitating vote swaps for your friend group and getting me expelled will save everyone. But if everyone’s getting a score of (+2), there’s a realistic chance the Aesthetics tiebreaker will put you into the bottom 10—and then it’s goodbye. Am I wrong?”

Mino shook her head aggressively.

“Emi-chan warned us you might try something like this. I won’t fall for it.”

Wow, she warned us.

Not that it was unexpected, but every second that passed I felt more and more irritated by that woman’s existence.

“...In that case, what if, hypothetically—someone used their deplorable vote on you?”

“What?!”

“If that happened, it wouldn’t even matter if Sakura Emi somehow scrounged another exemplary vote for you—you’d place at the bottom due to how the tiebreaker system works.”

“Threaten me all you want, mister. All you’re proving is that she was right to target you.”

Mino hurriedly turned around and opened the sliding door of the classroom.

“To be honest,” she began, “I felt bad at first. I thought you were just someone minding their own business and that you didn’t deserve to be the sacrifice… now I know you’re actually a monster.”

I smiled.

Sadly, Mino couldn’t see it, since she was facing away from me.

“Don’t worry. You’ll realise I’m just looking out for you soon enough. If you ever change your mind about working with me, forecast a deplorable vote for Yamada Junpei.”

“...Disgusting.”

She slammed the door shut, and though I imagined she quickly stormed down the corridor after that, the soundproofed walls of Classroom 1-F made it impossible for me to hear her footsteps.

I took out my phone and texted Mari.

[Message me the time that Mino Ruri comes back.]

With that, Step 1 of my plan was done.

There was nothing much to do other than wait for the forecasted votes to come out on Saturday morning, so I went back to my room.

I spent the rest of 19th April relaxing, avoiding Watanabe, and generally enjoying myself.