Unfortunately, just as the hem of her skirt was about to hit its limit, her hand stopped. It didn't lift any higher.
"I mean, I could just let Kuroba-kun take a peek like this… but I'd really prefer it if you agreed to do me a little favor first."
"Tch, called it…"
As expected, the mysterious wonders beneath a beautiful girl's skirt were just like a scam stock scheme. If he chose to "buy in" now—if he looked—he'd probably end up like poor Tom—utterly fleeced, left with nothing but regret.
If she was secretly the scheming, manipulative type, she could easily use this as leverage, and blackmail him into giving up his entire high school life.
Just to see a pair of panties? That's way too steep a price.
Kuroba Akira made his decision on the spot.
"Then forget it. I'm not looking."
"Not looking? Really? You sure about that? This is the class rep's underwear we're talking about here. Your actual classmate. A real, living, breathing high school girl. Don't you even want to know what color it is? Or the style?"
As Anri Hitomi spoke, she dramatically swished the hem of her skirt back and forth, like a magician playing with a trick cloth—each flick stoking the sense of mystery and allure.
The rippling fabric naturally drew the eye, stirring up that primal urge to uncover the unknown.
No wonder people say the mysteries of the universe are hidden beneath a schoolgirl's skirt…
Before it's revealed, it's just like Schrödinger's box—no one knows what's truly inside. A delicate mystery both sacred and ridiculous.
And right now, Kuroba's gaze was practically magnetized to that swaying skirt. He almost saw something—but didn't. The way she manipulated that threshold between seen and unseen was on par with the rice-serving finesse of cafeteria ladies—expertly rationed, cruelly precise, teasing every single nerve in the adolescent male brain.
In the end, he rolled his eyes hard and resisted the temptation, rubbing at his temples as he raised a single finger toward her.
"One second is looking. A whole minute is still looking. Whether I'm three meters away or right up close, it's still the same. The point is—you control the skirt, not me. That gives you all the power. It's not a fair deal."
Anri slowly lowered her skirt and gave a thoughtful nod.
"I see… That makes sense. Time and distance do affect the quality of the experience. And if Kuroba-kun ends up feeling like he's been played, he definitely wouldn't want to help me afterward."
"Exactly. And on top of that, I don't even know what I'd be looking at. What if it turns out to have teddy bears or strawberries on it? That'd be a total loss for me."
Some guys might be into that, sure—but Kuroba definitely wasn't one of them. He had no taste for the "cutesy" aesthetic.
"Teddy bears and strawberries count as a loss, huh…? Then I'd like to know—what kind of underwear would make you feel like you'd 'won,' Kuroba-kun?"
"Black. Sheer. Lacy. Maybe with some floral embroidery."
"Oooh, so H! Is that your personal taste?"
"Nope. It depends on the character archetype."
"Archetype?"
"Yeah. Like, say you've got this super shy, innocent-type high school girl. She trips on a flat surface and accidentally flashes her panties. She realizes it's been seen, her face turns beet red, she gets all flustered and yanks her skirt down in a panic—but pulls too hard, and ends up tugging it clean off, so now her whole pair is exposed… That's when plain white panties are the most perfect match."
Anri seemed to be mentally following along with the scene he described. When he finished, she nodded with sincere approval.
"Ohh, I get it now. When you put it that way, white really does seem like the right choice. No, it has to be white."
"Right?"
"Then tell me, Kuroba-kun—why is it I seem like someone who would wear black, sheer, lacy adult underwear? Please… teach me."
She said "please teach me" with a polite smile, but her tone left no room for refusal. It was the kind of "ask" that meant you're not going anywhere until you answer.
"Because you, Class Rep, would fit the contrast archetype."
"Contrast?"
"Yeah. Someone who looks perfectly proper and respectable on the surface—but secretly, under all that, is a closet perv. Stressed out from academics and craving something wild to relieve it. When you get home, you take off your glasses and start posting provocative selfies online. For that kind of girl, bold, risqué, high-exposure lingerie is the only correct choice."
"…But I don't wear glasses."
"Exactly. That's why you don't look like a class rep."
"And I don't feel any academic pressure either."
"Amazing. Truly amazing."
Well, with a talent like [Academic Ability: A], it was no wonder studying felt like a breeze for her.
"Actually," she said, tilting her head, "if we go by your definition of a secretly kinky class rep… wouldn't not wearing any be even more in character?"
"That's not secretly kinky. That's just a pervert."
"But wouldn't that make guys even more excited?"
"…I mean, you're not wrong."
Anri Hitomi had clearly been calculating how to increase her under-the-skirt bargaining power. And now that Kuroba himself had admitted as much, she wasted no time in pushing it even further.
"So then… Kuroba-kun, are you really not interested in checking for yourself? Seeing whether or not I fit your 'contrast' archetype? I'll even let you lift it."
She was staking the skirt-lifting privilege itself.
They say the two pieces of cloth a man most longs to lift in life are his first love's skirt, and his bride's veil.
And what Anri just offered—"you can look for as long as you want"—was more than tempting. Especially for Kuroba Akira, who, in his past life, hadn't lifted either.
"So, Class Rep… are you telling me you're not wearing any right now?"
"Mmm… it's a possibility~"
"The moment you hesitated, that possibility vanished."
"Kuroba-kun… you're too sly."
"Well, if it's obvious there's no jackpot waiting, I'm not betting unless I know exactly what I'm buying into."
Meaning: if she really wanted to make this a transactional offer, she'd need to explicitly state the color and design of her panties.
But that kind of thing—for a high school girl in the middle of puberty to reveal—was already more humiliating than most punishment games.
No matter how mature Anri tried to act, she was still just a fifteen-year-old first-year. Only half Kuroba's former-life age. She hadn't yet been baptized by the harsh realities of society.
The decisive difference between them… was the thickness of their skin.
"…I see. So Kuroba-kun isn't the kind of guy who can be tempted by just this much. Or maybe… my underwear just isn't charming enough."
With a soft sigh, Anri seemed to give up on seducing him. She walked past Kuroba and stopped in front of the vending machine.
"What a shame. I was going to buy you a drink if you agreed to help."
At that, Kuroba—who had just been about to say goodbye—leaned back casually against the side of the vending machine and folded his arms.
"Class Rep, I won't lie—yeah, a current high school girl's panties are tempting. But I'm just a regular guy. Between chasing after some kind of spiritual fulfillment and securing material comfort, I'm always going to pick the latter."
Anri placed a hand on her chest and let out a theatrical sigh.
"Kuroba-kun… I'm genuinely hurt."
"What for?"
"So my panties… are worth less than a bottle of juice?"
"I never said one drink was enough to buy me. Besides—shouldn't we start by you telling me what exactly it is you want help with?"
"That's what you should've asked first!"