Chapter 1.7 - Edge Of Knife

"What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear someone say the word 'underwear'?"

"Indecent thoughts." Horikita clicked a little bit of the blade from her NT cutter and pointed towards me.

Sigh.

In the end, Horikita caught up to me, the NT cutter almost stabbing my arm. Fortunately, I ran towards Keyaki mall where it was crowded. I figured that she wouldn't dare to assault me if I was in a public place. It was also my scheme to invite her to the café in order to cool her down and talk things through. Horikita ordered a cappuccino while I ordered a cup of tea.

I took a sip from my cup, progressively organizing my thoughts.

"Alright, first of all, when you think about the word "underwear", the first thing that comes in your mind should be a piece of 'cloth', right?"

"And your point is?" Horikita gave me an even sharper glare than before.

"When you think about 'clothes' in particular, like before a game of rock-paper-scissor, what would be the first thing that crosses your mind?" I continued.

"I don't think I understand the point you're trying to make."

"Think harder, Horikita-san. 'Clothes' and 'Rock-paper-scissor', there's an obvious similarity between them."

After I gave her a hint, Horikita thought to herself for some moment. There was an obvious reason behind the action I took earlier.

To ask someone specifically about a 'clothes' before a game of rock-paper-scissor could only mean one thing.

"Ah." it seems she had finally found the answer.

"When you think about clothes, you also think about scissors, is that what you were trying to say?"

"Indeed." a classic psychological trick for winning a game of rock-paper-scissor.

"But even if you say that, something's not adding up. Why did Ayanokouji-kun choose paper instead of scissor then?"

"That's simple. Ayanokouji already knew about the trick."

"Huh? Ayanokouji-kun did? Aozaki-kun, are you sure you're not bantering some random nonsense?"

I put my cup down on the table.

"Horikita-san. In order to counter a scissor, you need to play a rock. And to counter a rock, you need play a paper.

It was no coincidence when he chose paper and why I chose scissor."

"I-is that so?"

Yes, in the end it was just a battle of wits.

"But how could you have been so sure that Ayanokouji would choose to play paper and nothing else?"

"That's easy, it was a gamble."

"What? So you're saying that everything was pointless?" Horikita was getting bewildered everytime I revealed a new piece of information.

"I didn't say that, Horikita-san. The results weren't completely up to the binomial distribution after all. In the end, I had two absolute choices.

Either, he would play scissors and I would play rock.

Or, he would play paper to counter my supposed rock, while I would play scissors to counter his paper again.

It was a 50-50 chance, I merely picked the one that seemed more logical."

I picked up the cup, took a sip from the lukewarm tea. That was too much detail for a simple game of rock-paper-scissor.

Horikita was seemingly amazed.

"Aozaki-kun, you honestly surprised me."

"Hmm... Why?"

"I thought you and Ayanokouji-kun were both idiots. But it seems that you two are quite intelligent as well."

"I'll take that as a compliment I guess."

"Are you two perhaps smarter than you show?"

She was sharp, as expected.

"I wouldn't be so sure. That trick isn't much of a secret though, it's actually pretty well known, you know?"

"But the way you explained and the way you two played..."

"I wonder if I'll be a good teacher someday..."

As I continued to feign ignorance, Horikita kept glaring at me in annoyance.

"Anyways, I think that should explain my reason behind the 'underwear' business."

I finished my tea and got up.

"Wait just a moment, Aozaki-kun."

"Eh?"

"Granted, you used that tactic to win the match. But you're yet to answer one question."

I was kind of hoping for her to avoid that.

"Why did you use my name specifically?"

Horikita also stood up. Her right hand looked scarier than ever.

"It just came out naturally, no reason specifically."

"....."

The situation was getting horrifyingly dangerous. In order to deescalate, I decided to walk towards the counter and pay for both orders.

"As an apology, I have paid for your cappuccino."

Horikita was still silent, avoiding eye contact with me. That was a warning. If I didn't flee from that place immediately, I would undoubtedly regret it.

As she was intentionally avoiding eye contact, I used that chance to escape as silently as possible.

••••••••

"Ayanokouji."

Ayanokouji was standing by the entrance of the Keyaki mall, as I requested. I needed to discuss matter regarding the future.

"How did it go?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Oh.. so it was that bad."

"Let's go."

It was already late evening, the sun was a finger away from the horizon. The setting sun and the escaping sunrays painted the sky with a vermilion touch. A nostalgic memory.

The memory of the day I was stabbed to my demise.

We started our discussion while walking towards our dormitory.

"First of all, what do you think about the current situation regarding this school?"

I needed to confirm the latent doubt that he had about the S-system.

"Are you talking about the question you asked Chiyabashira-sensei yesterday?"

"What do you think? Are we going to receive the same amount of points next month?"

He paused for a moment, possibly thinking about the issue at hand. I was pretty sure, with an observation skill like his, he should've already made a theory by then.

"What do you think?" he decided to reply with a reiteration of my own question.

"If you want me to give you a simple answer, no."

"Do you have a reason to think that?"

"Don't feign ignorance, Ayanokouji. We both noticed the 'free items' section from the store yesterday. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have noticed the hidden camera on top of your forehead."

"Is there supposed to be some sort of hidden meaning behind them?"

"The camera screams the message, 'we are always watching'. We were being monitored from the very moment we stepped inside this school."

"Oh..."

"I'd much rather you stop pretending to not know. I know about you more than you think I know."

Ayanokouji, was the protagonist of the novel. He personally narrated the events happening around him and how he does things. I knew what he was thinking given that I was already aware of what his though process was.

The character Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was nothing more than just a character from a light novel.

He visibly sighed.

"So, what do you want to do?"

"I was going to ask that question to you. Do you have some idea of sorts?"

"Well, I have a number of ideas prepared. I just wanted to ask your's to compare, I guess?"

At first, I wanted to leave things as they were, to teach everyone about the importance of private points and class points. But then I changed my mind afterwards.

"In that case, how about we establish a leader?"

"A leader?"

"Someone who is capable of unifying the class as a whole."

'A leader who could lead the class towards victory' is what I would call ourselves. No, more realistically we needed someone who could persuade the majority of the class into doing whatever we ordered, however we intended.

We needed a perfect puppet to gain control over the entire class D.

"Do you have someone in mind?" he asked.

"For starters, let's begin with Hirata."

Hirata Yousuke was a born leader, a boy who would go through hell for his classmates. He would do just about anything if it meant improvement for his classmates.

That means, if we managed to make him believe in our actions, he would quite possibly distribute the orders to the others with maximum efficiency, all while keeping up the role of a 'leader'. On that aspect, he was also the easiest target to manipulate.

"He is the most suitable one to be the leader, I'll have to give you that."

"But the question is, how do we know if he wants to take the role."

"Simple. You don't tell the leader to become the leader. Leadership is something that happens naturally, all we need to do is give him a small push." he explain in one breath.

"Understood."

"In that case, that small push would be..."

"What if we give him a reality check? That should do the trick."

"Exactly."

We were walking side by side, discreetly making our conversation. The sun had already set, darkness started crawling out from the shadows. In a few steps we had finally reached the dormitory.

"Isn't that Kushida standing there?"

"That's Kikyo for sure."

"Hee... So you both are on first name basis already?" Ayanokouji gave me a suspecting glance.

"It's a long story."

Noticing us, she smiled like the moment when a cameraman asks someone to smile for the camera. A smile that doesn't reach the eyes, a façade.

"I'm so glad! I was waiting for you, Levent-kun. You too, Ayanokouji-kun. There's something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you have a minute?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure..." Ayanokouji replied while glancing at me, his face was telling me, "am I a third wheel here?"

"I'll just ask you outright. Levent-kun, have you seen Horikita-san smile even once?"

A mental image of Horikita's sadistic smile came to my mind. It was from the moment when I almost choked on a bread.

"Her smile is devious like a demon's, that's for sure."

"Right? wait, wha- umm... I'm sorry. I just... didn't expect that answer."

"It's okay. She only smiles when the other are suffering." Ayanokouji replied.

"A sadist. A sadist, I tell you!"

"Hehehe..." she snickered.

I wonder if that was a fake too...

"Oh.. sorry. It's just... you two seem to get along well with Horikita-san."

"I think you're getting the wrong impression here. While we do talk from time to time, she made herself very clear that we are not friends."

"Not even acquaintances." I corrected.

"You know, I...I want to become friends with Horikita-san," she lied.

I knew her personality down to detail. At that moment, there was nothing is this world that she hated more than Horikita. She was a bogus, a phony, a janus faced girl. If I had the option to, I would've immediately called demise on her.

"So you want us to help you make friends with Horikita-san?" Kikyo nodded in response.

However, from a realistic perspective, she was an important asset for our plan. It wouldn't be rational to dispose of a potentially useful character like Kikyo.

As a reader, I could only read so much about the background characters, the one's who were always kept in the dark. Those 'classmates' didn't matter when they were simply mobs in the light novel. But at that current situation, they played an important role in building up our class. In order to gain information and influence over those 'classmates', there was no other choice but to rehabilitate her.

Besides, she would turn out to be a perfect pet.

"But as I mentioned, we're not even acquaintances. And given what I did earlier, she hates me even more now. I'm sure she wouldn't hesitate to even kill me to be honest."

"Won't you...help me?" this time she asked Ayanokouji.

"Uh..." he looked towards me.

I kept signalling him, "No, don't do this!", "She'll kill me, for sure!", "No, means no!".

"I understand how you feel, Kushida, but..." he tried to deny, but...

"So that means...you can't?"

That was when Kikyo took advantage of a virgins heart. With a combination of puppy eyes, a pleading look and a "I'm a maiden in love" type of pose, she captivated my Ayanokouji.

"Well, I guess we don't have a choice. Just this once, okay?" as expected from a virgin.

I sighed.

"Right. We'll do our best, just don't expect anything from us, Kikyo."

"Really?! Oh, thank you, Levent-kun, Ayanokouji-kun!" she cried.

I wonder how her other janus face looked like behind the mask.

"So, what exactly are we going to do? Even if you say you want to be friends with her, it's not that simple." Ayanokouji said.

"You're probably right... Well, first I think we should try to make Horikita-san smile,"

"Do something to look like you're in a jeopardy and she would give you the biggest smile in the world." I spoke from experience.

"Now, now Levent-kun. We're talking about this seriously. Please don't joke around like that." what did I do?

"In any case, to make Horikita smile, huh?" Ayanokouji thought to himself loudly.

"Do you have any idea?"

I shrugged. The only idea I had, other than being a masochist was to help her reconcile with President Manabu, which I would do only after I was done with my plan.

"Well, anyway, after class, I'm going to try inviting Horikita out again." Ayanokouji continued

"If we wind up back at the dorms, though, I'll have no idea what to do. Is there any place that she wants to go to?"

"Ah. Well then, how about Palate? I've gone to Palate often, and Horikita-san might have overheard us talking about it before."

If I remember correctly, Palate was the café Horikita and I had our date earlier. Which means...

"If I may, I would advise you not to use that place to instigate your 'friendship' with Horikita-san." I gave my opinion.

"Huh? But why?"

"Trust me, anywhere but Palate would do. How about the restaurant on the ground floor? I mean if she ordered something, she wouldn't be able to leave until she was finished. Besides, it's as they say, "The way to a someone's heart is through their stomach."

"I think it was something about a man though."

"It goes the same for everyone."

I mean who wouldn't love to eat? Psychology says that eating temporarily relieves someone from anger, stress and anxiety. A special sort of chemical name "dopamine" is released when we eat, which makes us stimulate the feeling of happiness.

But I wonder if the same case would apply for tsunderes like Horikita.

"Jokes aside, I really think this might actually work." Ayanokouji reaffirmed.

"Ooh! That certainly sounds like it would work! Both of you are so smart!" she cried.

"In any case, I think it would be better if you two approached Horikita-san without me."

"Why would it be better?"

"That's a secret between Horikita and I"

Something tells me she would behead me with her NT cutter on the spot if she learned that all of it was my idea.

"Oh, is that so? In that case wish me luck, Levent."

"Levent, are you sure?"

I knew that this could only end well, so I decided not to interfere. Ayanokouji bought this upon himself, in that case I should also let him figure this out by himself.

"Good luck."

I'll pay for your funeral.

••••••••

The next day I came to the school early. Before I entered the class, I checked to see if she was inside or not. Her seat was empty, so I thought she wasn't there. The entire class was empty.

I sighed in relief, knowing that Horikita's stubbornness was on a whole other level.

I went to my seat, hung my bag and closed my eyes to rest.

But just when I thought things were getting better...

"It seems you're here, Aozaki-kun."

Hearing that voice I instinctively moved my arm.

Pluck!

When I opened my eyes, I saw a compass stuck in my desk, an a hand trying to pull the compass. If I was even a millisecond late, that would've been my hand.

Horikita pulled the compass out of the desk and pointed towards me again.

"Huh?"

I don't understand. What I said shouldn't be taken as anything more than just a joke. It was a harmless joke. Why was she so obsessed with her superiority complex? Why was she so persistent? Did I do that big of a crime to deserve that?

"Stop evading your punishment, Aozaki-kun."

Aozaki-kun...

Aozaki...

....

....

....

...

<You're [The Headhunter]'s son, aren't you?>

"..."

Change of plans. I'm doing it now!

"Wh- Huh? Aozaki-kun, what are you--?"

I took the stab with my left palm, but further than that, I caught her arm and strengthened my gripping, little by little.

"Ow, it hurts! Aozaki-kun, let me go!"

"....."

Her long round eye; I could see everything right through her soul. I pushed her down with the sharpest glare I could ever give.

"Stop."

"What?"

"Don't call me by that name, ever."

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