Tachibana Yukika was still dragging yesterday with her. A transfer student. Asakura Yuuki. Red hair and golden eyes. That smile—far too dazzling. "I don't care." Walking down the slope of Midoriga Hill, Yukika whispered it to herself. At the third curve of the Lament's Seven Bends—the landing halfway up the slope where the road widened—she caught a glimpse of her own face reflected in the vending machine glass. Stern. Thirty percent sterner than usual. "I don't care, so I'll forget it quickly. Already forgot. Done." The face in the glass remained utterly unconvincing—a Hannya mask through and through. She reached into her bag. The leather-bound notebook of the Honesty Project Version 47—custom-made by Souichirou, only on day two—and opened today's mission section. 【Conversation Division, Today's Challenge: Convey a positive remark to a classmate】 Any target is fine, written in Souichirou's elegant calligraphy. With a note: "Limiting to a specific person may create psychological barriers." Yukika pulled out a pen and wrote after "Target:" 　Yuuki She erased it the moment she saw it. Blacked it out. Wrote it again. Erased it again. Then blacked it out further and added cross-hatching over that. It became an indecipherable pitch-black mass, but the pen's impression remained clearly visible—if you held it to the light, you could probably still read it. "...It doesn't matter who it is." At the seventh curve, Suirei Academy's school building came into view. A private school with Meiji-era bloodlines—a building with the history of being founded through investment by the third-generation Tachibana—its morning face was always quiet and heavy. Today. Today she'd say just one positive word. She could do it. She'd manage it. Version 47 had only just begun. Yukika took a deep breath and passed through the main gate. --- The moment she entered Class 3-B, red flew into the center of her vision. Asakura Yuuki was already sitting in the seat next to Yukika's. The sheer luck of being placed next to window-seat Yukika on the transfer student's first day—before she could even process that thought, golden eyes turned toward her— "Tachibana! Morning!" It was dazzling. Her voice was too bright. Yukika felt like she'd burned through seventy percent of the morning's energy in that single greeting. (…Her voice is louder than yesterday. Why is she improving?) Yukika silently took her seat. She hung her bag on her desk and pulled out her materials. Yuuki didn't seem bothered at all, just grinned while gazing at Yukika's profile. That stare gradually got under her skin. (Now. Say something positive. Just "good morning." Three characters. O-ha-yo-u. Just move your mouth. The minimum unit of greeting in modern Japanese. There's no way I can't do this.) Yukika opened her mouth. "...Your face is annoyingly cheerful." Silence. "Huh!?" "Your face—all that grinning is annoying, that's what I'm saying." "Tachibana really does come in at full power from the start!! I like it!!" The "achievement rate" column in her notebook sank into the negatives again. Yukika looked out the window. The sky was clear. The world wore the face of someone who didn't care about Yukika's feelings. The situation didn't improve even after homeroom started. While the homeroom teacher droned on, a slip of paper quietly slid over from the seat next to her. She unfolded it to find rough handwriting: "Where did you go after school yesterday, Tachibana?" "…" Yukika took the paper and quietly folded it under her desk so the teacher wouldn't notice—and in that exact moment, the homeroom teacher happened to look her way. "Asakura, did you pass something to Tachibana?" "Oh, sorry!" It was refreshing. Her apology was too refreshing. Could four characters—"I'm sorry"—really carry that much cleanliness? Yukika felt inwardly shaken and turned back to the window. (…Why can she apologize like that. Just… why?) She'd never been able to apologize like that. Whenever she tried, "Did you think I'd apologize? Too bad" came out instead. She quietly opened her notebook on her lap. She wrote with her pen. 『Conversation Division ①: Failed. Utterance: "Your face is annoyingly cheerful." Deviation from target: Omnidirectional』 --- Break time came. This time for sure, Yukika decided. She'd stand up when Yuuki headed toward the hallway and call out to her. The simulation was perfect. "I'm interested in you"—she'd say that. Complete sentence, one breath, with a smile. She could do it. "...Asakura." Yuuki spun around. Red hair swayed softly. Golden eyes caught Yukika straight on. The moment she received that gaze, what flew out of Yukika's throat was— "Drop dead." The classroom air instantly entered an ice age. Tanabe three rows back froze with his eyes wide open. The two girls by the window held their breath and went rigid. Everyone made an instinctive move to secure a safe distance from the nuclear bomb known as Tachibana Yukika. Silence lasted 0.5 seconds. "Is this tsundere!?!?" Only Yuuki was clenching both fists and celebrating with her whole body. "That's the best!! Seriously the best!!!" "...What?" "Tachibana, does that mean you're interested in me!? Is that what that means!?" "That's not what it means at all!!!" Something in Yukika's head started blinking. An error lamp—something red. Tanabe stared with hollow eyes from three rows back. (…A natural enemy has appeared for Tachibana.) --- During the break between first and second period, Yuuki approached Yukika in the hallway. "Tachibana, did you understand the lesson?" Yukika said, "Stop talking to me, it's unpleasant." "You didn't understand! Let me teach you!!" The error lamp became two. During PE, when they lined up next to each other for warm-ups, Yuuki said, "Tachibana, you look like you'd be fast." Yukika said, "Your existence is blocking my view." "Wait, you were only looking at me!?" The error lamp became three. In the hallway, Yukika's eyes met Tanabe's as they passed, and Tanabe cautiously called out from a distance. "...Tachibana, are you okay today?" "I'm not okay at all." She said it honestly. Rare. Tanabe said, "I figured," and carefully increased the distance before leaving. --- Lunch break. The school store—at the end of the central hallway on the first floor of the main building—was a battlefield where fried chicken bread sold out every day at 12:08. Today too, Yukika walked quickly down the hallway at the lunch chime. Not that fried chicken bread was her goal. She just wanted to finally tell Shimada—the store clerk, 58 years old, expressionless—"Thank you for always helping me." That was her remaining challenge for the day. She reached toward the shelf. Fried chicken bread, one left. Her fingertips were about to touch the package when— Another hand came toward the same bread. It stopped. Both hands froze mere centimeters apart. "…" "…" Slowly, she looked up. Golden eyes were there. Asakura Yuuki, looking slightly surprised, was watching her. Red hair caught the fluorescent light and gleamed faintly. In the narrow space of the school store, the distance between them was oddly close. Something in Yukika moved in a strange direction for just a moment. (…It's not… unpleasant.) The moment she noticed that feeling, Yukika grabbed the bread and shoved it at Yuuki. "I don't even want this anyway, so you can have it." 0.5 seconds of silence. "You're trying to feed me indirectly!?!?!?" It echoed through the entire store. "This is love!! This is totally love!!!!" "Shut up!!!!" Behind the counter, Shimada witnessed all of this with an expressionless face. Not a twitch. The iron spirit cultivated over 58 years of life remained unmoved even now. Yukika regrouped here. Now was the time. The words of gratitude to Shimada. "Thank you for always having bread"—just that. She could say it. Yukika turned to face Shimada and opened her mouth. "...I've always found the way you arrange the bread bothersome." Shimada, still expressionless, said "...I see" and took the 180 yen. Behind her, Yuuki was holding the fried chicken bread in both hands, eyes glistening. "Tachibana's feelings are... in this..." "Eat it!! Eat it right now!!!!" "I want to treasure it..." "Stop worshipping it!!!!" Shimada, expressionless, began serving the next customer. Tanabe, watching from the school store entrance, saw the whole thing. Quietly, he turned back. He'd give up on fried chicken bread today. --- In the latter half of lunch break, Yukika was walking down the hallway holding a notebook while trying to pull out an arithmetic workbook. Yuuki came up beside her. "Tachibana, is there a notebook you want to show me? I'd be happy if you'd let me teach you." "I'd rather die." "You're thinking about me so much you'd rather die!!" Something snapped. She heard a sound. Not that there actually was one, but something definitely "snapped" in Yukika's brain. Yukika put her hand against the hallway wall. And went still. "Tachibana?" "...Wait a moment." Deep breath. One. Two. Three. (…What is that? No matter what I say, she converts everything to her liking. "Drop dead" becomes a love confession. "Annoying" becomes "I want to be with you." "I don't want to see you" becomes "I'm always watching you." I've never met anyone like this.) Through the hallway window, the spring sky of Aokikawa City was visible. Not a cloud. Sunlight illuminated the school building's white walls. (…Why is my face hot? Why?) "Are you okay? Do you have a fever?" Yuuki's voice came from very close. Yukika slowly looked up. Golden eyes peered at her with concern. A completely unguarded, straightforward gaze. "...No." "Good." She smiled. That smile was dazzling, and something—just barely—inside Yukika wavered. "...Don't talk to me." "See you later!!" The error lamps stopped being counted. --- After school. From Suirei Academy to the east end bench of the Aokikawa riverbank—approximately 12 minutes on foot. Yukika walked slightly faster than usual. She passed the foot of Sakura Embankment Bridge and descended to the north bank of the riverbank. About 200 meters downstream from the bridge, there was a single bench. The sunset dissolved into the water of the Aokikawa. Orange light spread across the river's flow, wavering and flowing downstream, faintly tinting the silhouettes of the buildings in the East Aokikawa commercial district on the opposite bank. The wind was warm, carrying the scent of late spring. Yukika sat down on the bench and opened her bag. She pulled out Bear-kun. Beady black eyes. Slightly asymmetrical ears. The same face it had since her time at the Tachibana house. For a while, she just looked at the river. "...Will you listen?" Bear-kun said nothing. That was fine. "Today, I said 'drop dead' to someone and they looked happy." The sound of the river flowing. The cry of a bird in the distance. "They started worshipping fried chicken bread." Bear-kun remained silent. "All my harsh words got converted to affection. All of them. Not a single exception. They change my failures into affection with devastating success." Yukika placed Bear-kun on her lap and laid out everything that had happened today in order. The "drop dead" that became "you're on my mind." The bread incident that turned into "this is love!!" The "I'd rather die" that became "you're thinking about me so much you'd rather die." As she put it into words and lined it up, a strange feeling came over her. "...Normally someone would get hurt or angry. But they're happy about all of it. They convert everything to the positive. I've never seen anyone like that." The evening wind traced the river surface, and fine ripples spread across the water. "I don't hate it. I wonder why." She said it quietly. Softly, toward the river. Bear-kun said nothing. Just sat on Yukika's lap, looking at her with beady eyes. The so