Book 4.5: Chapter 2: part8
Part 8
"What are you guys doing...?". Suddenly surrounded by Ike and the others with who he had no connections, even the normally calm Katsuragi could not hide his surprise. It was there that Kushida, who must have participated in the dialogue of the earlier exam, started talking to him.
"Sorry for being so sudden, Katsuragi-kun, do you have some time?".
"Kushida, huh? What is the meaning of this?" Katsuragi asks.
"The truth is, I heard it from Ike-kun and the others. But isn't today supposed to be Katsuragi-kun's birthday?".
"Muu...that's right but...you've figured it out pretty well".
Perhaps he had no recollection of telling this fact to anyone, but he looks at us with a slightly confused expression.
"So that's why the four of us here wanted to celebrate it with Katsuragi-kun and that's why we called out to you" Kushida continued.
"No. There's no reason to do anything that special. Am I wrong?" Katsuragi replies. It seems rather than rejoicing at this, he's put his guard up. That was inevitable. It wouldn't be strange even if he thought it were some trap from Class D. But even so, the fact that he isn't showing signs of immediately rejecting us, is probably largely thanks to Kushida's presence.