'It is finally here.'
Whether there was a test or not didn't matter much to Sakiko.
But what did matter, was the scholarship behind it.
Shuka Academy was formerly a private aristocratic school. Wealthy and generous.
Take this test, for example, the first place scholarship prize was a whopping 200,000 yen.
With that money, she could quit her tedious part-time jobs and free up more time to look for band members.
Then she'd quickly make her debut, become commercially successful, rise to fame in one shot, and escape financial crisis.
By that time, she could also throw aside useless concerns and boldly pursue the boy she liked.
Sakiko had great confidence in her grades.
When she was still the young lady of the Togawa family, she had undergone many years of elite-style education.
Music tea ceremony flower arrangement even equestrianism, a skill rarely used in modern society.
The Togawa family had been committed to cultivating her into a top-tier, all-around talent.
From childhood to now, Sakiko had always maintained the top spot in her grade. She was the Togawa family's brightest pearl, and the universally recognized "child from someone else's family."
Her grades at Shuka were undoubtedly among the very best.
So, sooking out the window in a certain direction, the blue-haired girl's gaze gradually turned determined.
'Very soon.'
'Kaito-kun, wait for me.'
This test would take two days.
The difficulty was moderate. Not easy to the point where just having hands was enough, but not hard enough to make you want to bite your pen out of frustration.
When Kaito finished and left the exam room, it was just 4:30 p.m.
'Wonder how Yumiko and Bocchi are doing now'
Shaking his head, he was about to head to the clubroom to wait, but after taking only a few steps, he saw a familiar figure at the corner not far away.
Old-fashioned pink tracksuit, matching pants with a dark gray pleated skirt. Such despair-inducing fashion sense, you'd be hard-pressed to find a second person like this in all of Shuka.
"Bocchi?", The sudden voice made the pink-haired figure freeze entirely.
She turned around timidly, glanced at him, then quickly lowered her head and muttered in a small voice:
"K-Kurumizaka-kun g-good afternoon"
"Good afternoon."
Kaito walked up and stood next to her, raising a brow, "Finally not hiding anymore?"
Maybe it was because of the incident at the Gotou house, it had left a deep shadow on the pink-haired girl.
Anyway, Bocchi had been deliberately avoiding him and Yumiko these past few days.
Head down in class, vanished the second class ended, and even skipped club time after school.
"Uuu", Bocchi's little face turned even redder.
She recalled that embarrassing scene from a few days ago, and even her chest felt slightly hot. Her heart's little deer wanted to bash itself dead.
Seeing she was about to retreat into her shell again, Kaito didn't press her. He changed the subject, "By the way, how did today's exam feel? Were the questions hard?"
"S-Still okay", Talking about this, Bocchi's tone lifted quite a bit.
The effect of the Light Blessing spell was amazing, it was like turning on a buff that doubled learning efficiency. Problems she couldn't understand before, now she could grasp easily.
The only pity was that such a powerful buff had a time limit. It wore off this morning.
Still, two days of review gave her a huge boost in academic power, like a young swordsman in a martial arts novel breaking through in the heat of battle, fighting back from the edge and beating the test boss to a pulp.
"A-Anyway, thank you very much, Kurumizaka-kun, for your help," Of course, the polite Gotou-san hadn't forgotten her true benefactor.
A 90-degree bowperfect form.
Her careful and cautious appearance made one really want to bully her.
"Just a thank-you and you think that's enough?"
Kaito said seriously, "Don't you have something more practical as a reward?"
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Chapter 38: Why the heck are you blushing like a bubble teapot!?
"Uuu the actual compensation", Bocchi watched his expression uneasily and said in a small voice, "I-I've been saving up some private money recently"
She'd always been working part-time at the livehouse run by Nijika's family, and with her parents' allowance added in, it totaled around 60,000 yen.
"I'm not interested in money."
In psychology, there's a phenomenon called "cute aggression syndrome."
Simply put, when people face something cute, they sometimes feel a desire to destroy or bully it, and feel a twisted pleasure from doing so.
It's a dark side that exists in everyone to some extent.
Kaito's current mentality was just like that.
It's hard to learn to be good, but one slip and it's easy to go bad.
He recalled how he used to be so upright, single-mindedly seeking the Way, and keeping away from women.
But ever since he and Yumiko opened the door to the forbidden realm, his views had started to shift ever so slightly.
'How joyous and worthy of celebration no, how pitiful and lamentable.'
"B-but", Bocchi looked troubled. As an ordinary female college student, aside from her private savings, she didn't really have anything worth offering
'W-wait!'
She looked down, but not at her toes. Bocchi's little face flushed red, a watery mist forming in her eyes, and her legs felt weak.
"I-if Kaito-senpai doesn't mind", She trembled as she spoke, too shy to even lift her head, "I'll try my best not to make any noise"
'Uh, what?'
'Why the heck are you blushing like a bubble teapot?'
Kaito had only meant to tease her, but who would've thought that with just one normal attack, the other side would flash and ult all at once, looking ready to give it up completely.
But looking at Bocchi-chan, her eyes already closed, long lashes trembling slightly, her breathing growing rapid from nerves, she looked like a small, timid beast, separated from the warmth of its mother's embrace, now facing the apex predator.
That aura of "weak, pitiful, and helpless" made one want to break her, to see that cute face melt into an expression of dreamy delirium.
If it were a different time, a different place, that'd be one thing.
But here in the corridor of the school building, there could be other students passing by at any moment.
This kind of exhibitionism play was still a bit too advanced for him. After pondering for a moment, Kaito was just about to change the subject when a surprised voice suddenly rang out:
"Ah hey, Kurumizaka-senpai, and Bocchi-chan!", They turned toward the voice and saw a red-haired girl full of energy waving her arms vigorously, then running over.
"I-it's Kita, good afternoon," Bocchi flusteredly opened her eyes and greeted her with a guilty look.
"Good afternoon," It wasn't until Kita Ikuyo got closer that she noticed something was off.
'Why is Bocchi-chan's face so red all of a sudden?'
And her gaze kept darting around, unable to look straight at her.
'She totally looks like she is hiding something'
Bocchi shrank under the suspicious gaze of the cheerful girl and worried that she might figure out what had just happened, so she quickly changed the subject, "K-Kita, did you come looking for me for something?"
"Can't I come find you even if it's nothing? I thought we were bandmates," As expected, Kita's attention was diverted. She wrinkled her cute nose and pretended to be annoyed.
But she soon showed a bright smile, sneaking a glance at Kaito with the corner of her eye and said seriously, "Today's our band's first team-building day since we formed. Ryou-senpai just messaged to hurry us to the STARRY gathering point."
"Oh right", Bocchi remembered too, but before she could say anything, Kita's cheerful voice interrupted with an eager invitation.
"Hey hey, Kurumizaka-senpai, do you want to come too?"
"Me?"
Kaito thought for a moment, then chose to decline.
'It is supposed to be an internal band event. Won't it be weird for me to just jump in?'
"Eh?", Kita looked a bit disappointed but still tried to persuade him, "Come on, come on~ It'll be more fun with more people. Group dinners are really fun, you know~?"
"No thanks," Kaito shook his head and smiled politely, "Hope you all have a good time."
Though his gentle smile was nice to look at, Bocchi had seen him enough as a classmate and clubmate to have built up some resistance to his charm.
But not Kita.
The last time she saw Kaito was well, the last time.
She couldn't bring herself to stalk him like some creepy fangirl, and now this smile had her head spinning. She even forgot what she was trying to say and just stood there grinning like an idiot.
Unable to keep watching, Bocchi surprisingly took the lead for once, quickly said goodbye to Kaito, and dragged Kita away.
Watching the two girls disappear around the corner, Kaito took out his phone. There had been a message notification beeping for a while.
The sender was labeled as [Nagasaki Soyo].
[Kaito-senpai, do you have time right now?]
The message had been sent fifteen minutes ago.
Kaito recalled quickly and remembered who it was.
'Ah, it is that poor girl who was possessed by that ghost.'
[What is it?]
The girl on the other end seemed to be watching her phone closely and replied almost instantly.
[You helped me a lot last time, and I still haven't thanked you.]
[If you don't mind, could I treat you to a meal as a thank you?]
High-rise duplex, sea and river view.
In a bedroom with giant floor-to-ceiling windows, a brown-haired girl still wearing her school uniform lay sideways on the bed, nervously staring at her screen.
This was the first time Nagasaki Soyo had invited a boy her age to go out.
She'd been struggling over this for a long time, even looked up "100 ways to invite a guy out" online, but none of them seemed reliable.
In the end, Soyo decided that sincerity was the strongest secret weapon.
Staring at the big [Read] label on the screen but getting no reply for a long time, Soyo started to doubt herself.
'Was I too forward?'
Finally, the phone buzzed.
[Sorry, I probably won't have time today.]
Soyo felt a bit disappointed.
But she quickly composed herself and typed again.
[No problem, of course your work comes first.]
[I won't bother you then, Kurumizaka-senpai~ Bye~]
She even added a cute cat emoji waving its paw.
[Elsewhere]
Kaito put his phone away and looked at the absolutely stunning girl with waist-length black hair in front of him, slightly surprised.
"Yukinoshita-san?"
It had only been a few days, but Yukino's condition had clearly improved.
With Kirara's demonic aura gone and her schedule back in order, the dark circles under her eyes had vanished, and her ink-black hair had regained its shine.
"Good afternoon, Kurumizaka-kun," Yukino greeted him softly, a rare look of hesitation on her pretty face.
There weren't many things that could make this ice-cold, snow-like girl falter, and Kaito quickly guessed what was going on.
"You came because of Kirara, right?"
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Chapter 39: Slit-Mouthed Woman
"Kirara?"
Yukino revealed a confused expression.
"That's Yukitan's real name."
Kaito smiled, "Of course, if you're not used to it, continuing to call her Yukitan is fine too."
"I'd rather not," Yukino shook her head, also showing a satisfied smile, "Kirara, that name is very nice."
She hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Kurumizaka-kun, if it's convenient... can I go see her?"
As the ancients said, ["One day apart feels like three autumns."]
Even though it had only been a few days of separation, Yukino worried every night before going to sleep.
Has Kirara been eating and sleeping well? Will she be uncomfortable in a new environment? Has she been mischievous?
So, as soon as she had recovered her energy, she couldn't suppress the anxiety in her heart and took the initiative to visit.
Kaito: "Of course."
After all, it had already been agreed before: if Yukino was willing, she could come pet the cat anytime.
"Thank you very much," Yukino visibly let out a sigh of relief.
The two of them left school, planning to take the train home.
On the way to the train station, perhaps because the atmosphere felt a bit heavy, Yukino hesitated but still took the initiative to speak, bringing up a popular topic circulating at school recently.
"Kaito-senpai, have you heard the rumor about the Slit-Mouthed Woman?"
This was a very famous urban legend in Japan, even quite well known around the world. There had been many movies made on the subject.
According to the legend, she's a woman with disheveled hair wearing a mask, who stands at intersections and asks passersby, ["Am I pretty?"]
If you answer yes, she takes off her mask to reveal a terrifying mouth slit all the way to her ears, and asks again, ["Am I still pretty?"]
Then she uses scissors to cut the passerby's mouth into a shape like hers.
If you say no, she gets angry and kills the person on the spot.
Yukino originally didn't believe in such supernatural nonsense and scoffed at it.
But Kirara's existence made her realize the world wasn't so simple.
If even Yokai could exist, then one more Slit-Mouthed Woman didn't seem like such a big deal.
However... the rumor about the Slit-Mouthed Woman had circulated in Japan for at least decades, but had never been proven.
'It must be fake again this time, right?'
"Slit-Mouthed Woman?"
Kaito raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling on a street corner not far away, "You mean, that thing over there?"
Yukino froze, then followed his gaze. Only to find a woman in a light-colored trench coat standing under a streetlight ahead.
The woman had her back to them, so her face couldn't be seen, but her figure was very tall.
In a country where the average height for girls was 158 cm, this woman under the streetlight was at least 190 cm tall.
Such a towering height was oppressive even among men. But the most eye-catching thing was still the enormous scissors in her hand, nearly half her own height.
