COTE :  Oh No, I've Become the Substitute

The May sunlight spilled lazily across the campus. The sky was a clear, limpid pale blue. A few wisps of drifting clouds wandered aimlessly. The shadows of the trees cast upon the ground stretched bit by bit as the sun shifted its position.

Unknowingly, they had entered the third week of May.

While the various small groups in Class A carried out their review plans in an orderly fashion, each first-year class had already organized its own study groups, making the final sprint for the midterm exams.

"So, why are you still here?"

In the corner by the window on the second floor of the library, Kamuro stopped the pen in her hand. She looked at Fuyuji—who had long since achieved the accomplishment of graduating from tutoring class, yet was still sitting in the library, seemingly trying to study her to death—and voiced a soul-deep question.

This guy, right in the very first week of tutoring, had graduated at the speed of light. Starting from a Japanese foundation originally far worse than her own, he had barreled past her side like a dump truck, leaving her a face full of exhaust fumes.

And then, utterly shamelessly, he had circled back around and barreled past her side a second time, dealing a second psychological critical hit.

This transcendent speed of improvement had once caused Kamuro, who had fantasies of surpassing Fuyuji, to doubt her very existence.

"Oh, come on, bro. Don't be so distant. Aren't I here to keep you company? Katsuragi said it himself: as long as someone has the will to improve their grades, they can come to tutoring, regardless of whether they pass or fail."

Fuyuji had his pen tucked behind his ear, staring at the practice problems on the test paper.

It couldn't be helped. Not wanting to accompany Senpai on shopping trips, he could only choose to keep grinding his grades.

Senpai wasn't as gentle as Shiraishi Mama. She would adjust the targets on the fly based on his errors, and the difficulty increased every time. If he didn't complete them, he could only submit to Senpai's whip over the weekend.

"This is a good thing, though. Having higher academic scores can never be a bad thing. In future special exams, there will definitely be ones related to academic ability."

Shiraishi organized Fuyuji's already graded practice booklets and placed them into her schoolbag.

"Is it about to end?"

She looked up at the book pages, flipped halfway open and swaying in the air on the table. "After this exam, this study group will disband. I'm just a little bit reluctant to let it go." The sunlight fell upon her long eyelashes, casting faint shadows.

"About that, I don't plan to disband it. Shiraishi-san is right. There will definitely be exams related to academic ability in the future. Keeping it around will still be useful later. What are your opinions?"

Shiraishi pressed her palms together, a watery glint shimmering in her eyes as she said joyfully, "I'm naturally in favor."

"What about you, my brother?" Fuyuji looked at Kamuro, who was buried head deep in writing her practice problems.

"Is there any point in me speaking?" Kamuro raised her head and glared at him with extreme disgust.

Fuyuji blinked. "How could there be no point? Isn't this just to give you a bit of a sense of participation, to show that I'm a democratic person?"

"You bastard..."

Kamuro, itching with hatred, showed no mercy. She raised one of her lithe, athletic legs clad in black knee-high socks from under the table and aimed a kick straight at Fuyuji.

"Dodge!" Fuyuji swerved his own thigh to the side, nimbly evading the kick. He flashed a smug grin. "Not good enough, my brother. You use this move every time. I've already developed a conditioned reflex."

Having missed her strike and then been provoked by Fuyuji, Kamuro's temper instantly flared. Her fair cheeks were tinged with a thin layer of red.

"If you've got the guts, don't dodge!"

"If I don't dodge, wouldn't that be admitting total defeat?"

"You've ordered me around to do so many things normally. Letting me kick you once won't kill you!"

"No can do, my brother. This constitutes the treasonous act of assassinating the emperor. In ancient times, that was punishable by beheading. Now that you've committed such an overstep, it's already an act of utter defiance! Halt your thigh at once!"

"You actually fancy yourself an emperor?!"

The pair of fair, beautiful legs beneath the table blurred into afterimages, launching a continuous flurry of kicks at Fuyuji.

"Dodge again! Dodge once more! I dodge agai— Ow!"

The emperor, Fuyuji, was shot down on the spot by the assassin, Kamuro.

Having successfully sanctioned Fuyuji, Kamuro exuded a sense of refreshment from the inside out. She even felt that writing her practice problems had become a few degrees more vigorous.

Shiraishi sat quietly in her spot as always, propping her chin on one hand and watching the clash between the two, savoring this ordinary yet not dull time that belonged uniquely to the three of them.

After playing dead on the desk for a while, Fuyuji suddenly lifted his head.

"Speaking of which, bro, how's your mission progressing?"

"You actually care about that? I thought you'd completely forgotten about it."

Kamuro looked displeased. Fuyuji's actions these past days, put nicely, were giving her the maximum degree of freedom. Put bluntly, it was pure, utter neglect.

Last time, when she'd wanted to report to him, he'd turned around and flung a link at her. She clicked on it—three players short for mahjong.

So she'd actually been dragged over by this guy to make up the numbers!

Of course, that wasn't even the most shameless part. The most shameless part was that this guy actually had the nerve to secretly send her messages, demanding that she play specific tiles in the next hand to assist him.

"How could that be? I do care about your physical and mental well-being. And don't I send you videos every day for you to learn from?"

"Heh heh. If only the videos you sent weren't those gag videos." Kamuro recited flatly, devoid of any emotion.

Fuyuji blinked and asked in disbelief, "Are you saying they're not funny?"

"Is THAT the main point?!" Kamuro ground her teeth.

"Watching more of them is good for your mental health. As long as your spirit gets enough training, you won't care about that kind of thing anymore." Fuyuji spoke with righteous conviction. "Those are videos from my treasured collection. I only send them to you. But if you don't like them, then forget it. I'll find something else to send you."

Kamuro's eyes flickered. Her gaze drifted out the window. With an unnatural expression, she said, "Suit yourself. I just watch them as my daily comedy feed anyway."

"Then I'll keep sending them?"

"I said suit yourself!" Kamuro kicked Fuyuji again, scraping him with a deeply annoyed glare. Her cheeks seemed to have reddened another shade.

"..."

What exactly do you girls mean when you say "suit yourself"?

"What about the intel on Class D? Anything valuable?" Fuyuji finally recalled proper business.

"Class D currently... mm... the person who should probably be considered the leader is a male student named Hirata Yosuke. He's currently organizing Class D's basic activities. But there's also a portion of students who are completely indifferent to what he says."

"Hirata Yosuke..."

Fuyuji rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Why does that name sound so familiar? Isn't he the number two hot guy on that abstract ranking, ranked above me?"

"That blonde-haired male student over there."

Shiraishi tugged at the sleeve of Fuyuji's shirt on his arm, directing his gaze down to the first floor of the library, where several first-year Class D students were sitting together, reviewing.

They were the same group of male students who had clashed with Horikita Suzune last time. However, this time, Horikita and Cha-Cha were nowhere to be seen. Replacing them was a sunny-type handsome guy whom Fuyuji had never seen before.

At that moment, that Hirata Yosuke was wearing a gentle smile, continuously saying something to the Class D students around him. Judging by appearances, he was trying to persuade them to study seriously.

It seemed that even knowing the correct exam scope, Class D was still at risk of expulsions.

This kind of persuasion appeared to be completely useless. Those Class D students had shifty eyes and were utterly distracted. On the surface, they seemed to be doing practice problems, but in reality, they hadn't moved at all. It was as if their recitation of vocabulary was forever stuck on the first word: "abandon."

This level of effectiveness... it felt like even having Horikita teach them would be better.

"Class D's leader really has it tough." Kamuro watched the deadlocked scene downstairs, a trace of sympathy showing on her face.

"Deeply agree." Fuyuji nodded in agreement.

After observing for a while longer, Fuyuji concluded that those few Class D people were already beyond saving, and sat back down.

Afterwards, Kamuro named a few more students in Class D with considerable ability, such as Kushida Kikyo, Horikita Suzune, Koenji Rokusuke, and others. She even described some of their personality preferences.

They all matched up with Fuyuji's other sources of intel.

"Not bad, my brother." Fuyuji looked at Kamuro in surprise. "I've got a whole new level of respect for you. How did you get all this?"

Kamuro proudly puffed out her chest a little. "A petite, silver-haired girl from Class D told me."

"..."

"Don't tell me that silver-haired girl is named Sakayanagi Arisu?" The corner of Fuyuji's mouth twitched.

"You know her too? She should be a good person. I met her in the hallway and happened to help her carry her bag for a bit. Then she added me as a friend and just told me."

Fuyuji fell silent.

If there was one student in the first year who could make Fuyuji feel trouble, Sakayanagi Arisu definitely counted as one.

For no other reason than that seemingly very frail body of hers. The time in the open-air area of the convenience store had really startled him.

This type, who risked collapsing at a single touch—Fuyuji felt it was best to keep his distance.

He pondered for a long while before speaking. "My brother, how about... I switch you to a different mission? I think Class B is a good choice. You could give it a try over there. Actually, I'm quite familiar with their class leader. We could do a joint social event."

"Was there a problem with how I completed this one?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Then I refuse. I think this mission suits me pretty well."

"Fine, then." Fuyuji sighed helplessly.

If she didn't tell you that on purpose, I'll chop off my own head and let you use it as a bowl!

Sakayanagi Arisu, just what is she planning? Did she turn dark after being pissed off and now wants to send this sinful Class D straight to hell? Or, like Chabashira Sae, does she want to temper Class D? Or is she purely in it for the lulz?

Recalling some of the words and actions from his previous conversation with Sakayanagi Arisu, the possibility of "turned dark" or "purely for the lulz" seemed more likely.

Since Kamuro was getting along well with her, leaving things as they were for now was also fine. After all, Kamuro was really too much of a lone wolf; she barely had a few friends even in Class A.

Of course, the premise was that she genuinely treated Kamuro as a friend, and not just as a source of amusement.

"Bro," Fuyuji looked at her with pity, "there's something I need to tell you first..."

Three minutes later, Kamuro said in disbelief, "You're saying... she deliberately told me that intel?"

"Nine out of ten." Fuyuji nodded affirmatively.

"She's been treating me like a fool this whole time?"

"Very high probability."

"Is there any chance it's just your imagination?"

"Zero."

Her face burning with humiliation, Kamuro pulled out her phone, her teeth grinding audibly, ready to settle accounts with Sakayanagi Arisu.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait!" Fuyuji hurriedly reached out and pressed down on her fingers, which were just about to dial out. "You can't go confront her about this."

"Why the hell not?!"

"If you go confront her, she'll immediately deduce that there's someone behind you. Although we could pin it on Katsuragi or Hashimoto, I just have a feeling she'd see right through it."

"So you just want me to bottle it up and say nothing?!"

Fuyuji's eyes widened. "Don't you like thrills? Isn't this thrilling enough?!"

This was practically a common hentai plot—the powerless husband and all that.

"..."

"Now that you mention it..." Kamuro belatedly realized, muttering a couple of lines quietly.

"So, my brother, do you want to just pretend you don't know and keep being friends with her? Or do you want to just delete her and be done with it once and for all? Which one?"

"..."

Kamuro stared at Sakayanagi Arisu's profile picture on her phone. Her finger unconsciously hovered over the delete button, lingering in midair for a long, long time, refusing to fall. Finally, she withdrew her finger and turned her head away. "Let's leave it like this for now. I'll settle the score with her later."

Fuyuji was shocked. Even after all this, you still won't delete her?

"Um... my brother," he quietly leaned in close to Kamuro's ear, his lips nearly brushing her ear as he whispered, "You wouldn't happen to be an M, would you?"

"You're the M!" Another kick landed on Fuyuji's thigh.

Kamuro looked at Sakayanagi Arisu's profile picture on her phone screen, her expression somewhat complicated. "I just feel... she doesn't seem to have many friends in Class D. I can't just leave her alone like this."

"You're way too soft-hearted. That girl has a seriously twisted sense of humor. And," Fuyuji shook his head and spoke with heart-wrenching grief, "I don't have many friends in Class A either. I'm the one and only Class A Weirdo, you know. Why don't you show a little concern for me?"

"..."

Kamuro half-lidded her eyes. "Do you think I'm blind? Save that kind of talk for fooling people in other classes."

"Cough." Fuyuji couldn't keep the act up any longer. "Fine. Since you like it..."

He didn't have high expectations for Kamuro. He just wanted to find something for her to do so she wouldn't go off and cast her Phantom Thief unique skill again. As for the rest...

"Then do as you like. Just remember: don't let her see through it. If she does see through it, don't say someone else put you up to it. If she finds out someone else put you up to it, don't rat me out."

"Am I really that unreliable?" Kamuro fumed with humiliation and rage.

"How could that be? My brother, your ability is something I have full confidence in." Fuyuji flatly denied it.

Sakayanagi Arisu was probably also, right now, pretending to be a girl who had unintentionally leaked intel. That was perfect. Maintain the status quo and keep getting free intel. In any case, Fuyuji wasn't losing out.

However, Fuyuji had a feeling this status quo wouldn't last long. After all, with Kamuro's tsundere personality, if Sakayanagi Arisu played pitiful just a little, she could probably figure out seventy to eighty percent of what was in Kamuro's heart.

After tutoring ended, Kamuro picked up her shoulder bag and left immediately. By the looks of it, she was off to try out that new type of play just now.

"Shiraishi-san, aren't you leaving together?"

"What do you think?" Shiraishi had a hint of a smile at the corner of her lips, her gaze burning intensely as it fixed on him.

"Then let's go eat together later. My treat. I came into a small fortune some time ago." Fuyuji extended the invitation, feeling quite pleased with himself.

"Alright." Shiraishi's brows and eyes curved into crescents.

"Wait for me just a moment. I'm going to go borrow a book to read."

"Mm."

He had almost finished that book "Farewell, My Lovely" from last time. His thoughts after reading it were somewhat hard to put into words. It felt like he understood, yet also like he didn't. As expected, works that reflected their era were too difficult to read without a certain degree of understanding of the local culture. So this time, he planned to pick up something simpler.

"The Snowman"...

"The Maltese Falcon"...

"A Wild Sheep Chase"...

His gaze swept across the bookshelves as his footsteps carried him forward.

On the bookshelf behind Fuyuji, the evening sunlight slanted in through the high windows, cut into beams of light by the layers upon layers of book spines. A quiet girl with long, silvery hair curiously observed Fuyuji through the gaps in the shelves.

Several times, she wanted to open her mouth and call out to him. But in the end, the words she had already prepared swirled in her throat, and the phrases that had reached her lips were swallowed back down.

Standing in place, clutching the hem of her skirt, after hesitating again and again, the girl took a deep breath, carrying the scent of ink unique to the library. She leaned forward slightly, her voice as light as a feather touching the ground:

"Hello—"

But unexpectedly, Fuyuji seemed completely immersed in the world of selecting books. His fingers glided across a row of book spines, finally stopping on "Thirteen Steps." He pulled it out with satisfaction, turned around, and vanished into the vast sea of books.

The girl watched the corner of the bookshelf where Fuyuji had disappeared, feeling a touch of wistful loss. Yet, thinking back to the book he had just chosen, she couldn't help but raise a faint smile.

A classmate who likes Kazuaki Takano's mystery novels... what kind of person could he be?

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