Black Market (fin.)

“Hey,” I said.

I wasn’t sure whether to address her as Sakura or Emi anymore, so I just left it hanging.

“...Hello, Mizuhara-kun.”

I guess Sakura would do.

Sakura afforded me a polite bow as she greeted me, par for the course given her nature. What was unusual, though, was her beige cardigan, polka dotted blouse and high-heeled boots—perhaps it was only because I’d seen her in school related outfits so far, but I never took her as the type to be fashion-conscious.

You could only bring in school uniforms and other things they deemed ‘vital’, which meant all of her outfit was purchased while in here.

“Nice clothes.”

“Um, thanks.”

“Must have cost a lot.”

“Ahaha.” Her eyes did all they could to not meet mine. “Actually, someone else bought these for me.”

“Like a gift?”

“I guess you could say that.”

She kept making a weird motion with her hands as she spoke, as if trying to rub invisible sanitiser all over.

“A-anyway, you said you had something to talk about regarding Ruri-chan. What was it?”

“I’ll tell you inside. Let’s not stand at the entrance, it’s cold.”

“…Okay, sure.”

We headed to the basement, maintaining a fixed distance from each other.

While there were a couple students here and there on the first floor, the basement was completely empty aside from the two of us. It was home to obscure reference books and a slew of function rooms that were used for student meetings and supplementary classes—Function Room 1, the one Sakura had booked, was about the same size as our regular classroom.

“We’re technically early, so I hope this works,” Sakura said.

Tapping her Student ID against the card reader, the door to our meeting place clicked open.

“Oh.”

Sakura looked genuinely surprised.

“Did you not expect it to unlock?”

“...Yeah. My friend told me that he booked it from 10am onwards, so it shouldn’t have been able to unlock now.”

“But you tried unlocking it anyway,” I pointed out.

“......”

Sakura ignored my comment and pushed open the door.

The function room was just rows of tables, chairs, and charging ports repeating over and over with a projector screen at the front—in other words, a typical Kitazawa classroom minus the windows.

We both took seats near the front, sitting side by side.

Other than the dissonant sounds of ventilation, there was total silence.

“Um…”

“So…”

“Er, you first,” I said.

“Oh… I was only going to ask what you wanted to talk about.”

“Uh, okay. Me first, then.”

It felt incredibly awkward.

I’d resolved to be emotionless whilst solving this issue, but something about the way Sakura looked and acted felt too human to ignore.

And so.

“Before we talk about anything else, I want to mention something.”

Sakura stayed silent.

“You might think that I’m angry about what’s happening to me this Special Project, but the truth is that after talking to ‘your friend’ and seeing firsthand what this school is all about... you’re probably the only person I can trust here.”

It wasn’t just Watanabe, I also had to be careful of Mari.

I didn’t think too much of her placement in Class A at first because she’d always been a top-tier student, but learning more about the school had made me second guess things.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that…” Sakura said, twirling a strand of her hair.

Wait.

……

“B-back to business. After your talk with Mino-san, did she approach you at all after that?”

“No..?”

“...Hmm.”

“Y-you can be sure of that. I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”

Sakura seemed genuinely flustered.

“…I’m not doubting you,” I said. “It’s just… someone tried to convince me that Mino-san did. Speaking of Mino-san, does she usually do anything after school besides go back to her room?”

“Um… not that I know of?”

“I see...”

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and I’m not referring to Glasses Girl.

Yesterday, Mari texted me that Mino Ruri returned to their room around 5.30pm.

A full two hours after I’d talked to her in class.

From that, you would assume that she approached someone in between those two hours, but I immediately doubted it thanks to my chance sighting of Sakura beforehand.

It looked like she was rushing off to a meeting of her own—with Watanabe, most likely. And while that might be a flimsy reason to cast doubt on someone, I had a feeling Sakura wouldn’t like it if Mino Ruri had seen her with Watanabe. To cut a long monologue short…

This meant that Mari was still willing to feed me false information, even now.

She really didn’t want me getting close to Sakura Emi.

“I’m sorry that I don’t know much… I’ve only known Ruri-chan for two weeks.”

“No, it’s okay. You’ve told me enough. And, uh…”

I gulped nervously.

“Are you… no, wait. Let me preface this by saying that it’s just a weird thought that I’ve been having, so don’t take my question too seriously.”

“Uh…” Sakura tilted her head to the side.

“Are you… dating anyone?”

“...That doesn’t seem related to anything we’ve discussed so far.”

She replied in a completely businesslike tone.

To be fair, she was right. Even if I was trying to probe for something, it made no sense for me to phrase it like that.

Then, as to why I did so anyway… I’m not sure if I should comment.

“...Uh, let me rephrase. What I actually meant to ask was… Are you Watanabe’s sugar baby?”

“......”

Since I clearly needed more practice with veiled questions, I decided to be direct.

“At first, I thought you were trying to protect your friends and looked to Watanabe for advice. But the more I think about it, the more that doesn’t make any sense.

Sakura shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “What makes you say that?”

“The way you’re acting, it’s more like you’re begrudgingly following his orders. Am I right?”

After all, the first thing I’d do if I were protecting my friends in a poll like this would be to account for their point totals and prioritise accordingly. And since I could find no observable pattern in how the votes within Sakura’s group were allocated, I could only conclude whoever made the plan didn’t care.

There’s a potential dissertation to be written here, but this observation probably sums it up:

If Sakura wasn’t close to Mino Ruri and her other ‘friends’, there must’ve been a strong reason why she was working so closely with Watanabe.

And willing to expel me.

“...Fine, you can put it this way—Yousuke-kun gives me gifts.”

“I figured.”

“Look,” Sakura said, crossing her arms. “I didn’t expect to feel this crappy about it… but if you’re going to imply that I’m being used, I don’t appreciate that.”

“No… don’t get me wrong. I trust you, remember?”

“Are you seriously trying to sweet talk your way out of this?”

“……So, why do you need money, anyway?”

Aha.

Strangely enough, that seemingly useless question actually clued me in as to Sakura’s psyche.

“…Because I want to make it to Class A,” she stated with a serene expression.

“Who would’ve thought.”

“But I don’t want to do it in the way the school has prescribed to us. I don’t want to lie, or cheat, or steal, or step on my friends… and that’s why, more than anyone else, I need to take any opportunity I can get.”

It’s not about being righteous, I just want to be able to love myself, she said.

How poetic.

But there was one problem with her quotable line.

“Uh, forgive me for asking this, but how are you not ‘stepping on’ me in this situation? If anything, you’re not just stepping on me, you’re running me over with a truck.”

Filled with dudes.

“…Well, one person has to be expelled no matter what, and if it’s you, then…”

“Huh?”

“L-look,” Sakura said again, albeit this time without crossed arms. “I’m sure you have your reasons, but I don’t know any of the other guys that well, and cheating isn’t cool…”

“What? Cheating?!”

I practically jumped out of my seat.

I’d thought (mistakenly, apparently) that we were over the comedic relief section of the story.

Actually, no—this wasn’t funny at all. It was horrifying.

“You’re like… two-timing a senpai and Tsujimoto-san. Not only that, you were really receptive to my advances…”

“Okay, wait a moment! In this scenario, who am I supposed to be cheating on?”

Sakura held a finger to her cheeks in contemplation.

“…That’s strange. I can’t seem to remember, actually.”

“…Nkk.”

“I’m pretty sure Yousuke-kun went into an in-depth explanation, but I was so seething with rage I didn’t bother listening.”

“……”

“Um, are you silent because you got caught, or because—”

“I’m not cheating on anyone! Why would you believe Watanabe?!”

“…That’s exactly what a cheater would say.”

She… actually, I had no retort to that.

A factual statement—if you disregarded the fact I wasn’t a cheater.

In other words, not at all.

“Ahaha,” she laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not serious. I can’t imagine you dating someone as miserable as Tsujimoto-san without going insane.”

“…Wait, so you’re saying—”

“She’s so tiny and full of hate, just like a little chihuahua. Aw! All I want is to cuddle her up into a little ball and !%^? the !;$& out of her @;%#.”

“……”

No, stop, don’t say that after you’ve just characterised yourself as a pure soul.

Here, Sakura. I’ll give you an easy out.

“So, speaking of—”

“I will admit one thing, though. Before I met Tsujimoto-san in person, I was convinced that you were just a dirty, good-for-nothing cheater. After seeing her, I realised that your reasons were probably justified. Still, cheating is bad, Mizuhara-kun, so you should stop as soon as you can. Or break up with that dog of a woman. It’s not nice to your girlfriend.”

“I… what?”

How did it end up like this?

“Okay, I’m not serious.”

“You said that just now!”

And then you continued the gag!

Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me twice… you can’t fool me again.

“No,” Sakura said. “This time... I mean what I’m about to say. There’s obviously no way you would have a girlfriend, so it goes without saying that it’s impossible you could cheat on anyone.”

George W. Bush lied.

Girls could fool me as many times as they wanted.

“……”

“By the way. You wanted to tell me something about Ruri-chan, right?”

“You can’t just segue into a serious topic like that…”

“I can. You wanted to tell me something about Ruri-chan, right?”

“But like—”

“You wanted to tell me something about Ruri-chan, right?”

……

“Fine.”

I did intend to talk about Mino Ruri, but now that Sakura had made it clear where her priorities were—there was no need to harp on that topic.

Instead, I gave her a counter-offer.

Not really a counter-offer—more of a bonus payment she could collect on the side.

Pulling out my phone, I opened up the Wallet application and displayed my point balance to Sakura Emi.

“It says I have 177,660 points,” I began, “but I owe someone 15,000—so really, I have slightly less.”

“…Interesting.”

“When this is over, I’ll transfer all the points I have remaining to you.”

Her expression changed from shock, to excitement, and finally concentration in a matter of moments.

Trying to calculate if it would be worth double-crossing Watanabe.

“But… what exactly do you want me to do?”

“Nothing much,” I said. “Just tell me what Watanabe told you to do, then continue doing it anyway.”

“Just?”

“For all of my points, I think that’s a pretty decent price.”

“…Fine,” she relented without much thought. “But there’s something I need to correct you on first.”

Did I miss out on something?

Her tone was solemn.

It was a serious remark.

“Uh… what would that correction be?”

“…You said that I didn’t care about protecting anyone, but that’s wrong... There’s definitely someone I was trying to protect.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind. It’s nothing, after all.”

She glanced away.

‘Nothing’ usually means ‘something’ in this genre, but I couldn’t be too certain.

The only thing worse

Than a man who is dense is

A man who assumes.

A Haiku by Mizuhara Kohei.

Therefore, ‘I’m not sure’ is always the stock reply.

“O-okay then,” she abruptly spoke. “S-so, I’ll go ahead and tell you about Yousuke-kun’s instructions.”

“Great,” I smiled. “It’s a deal.”

What I was sure of though, was that I wasn’t getting expelled, and that Sakura wasn’t going to get a single point from me.

Fact Seven: Black Market (END).