With his final, softly-spoken verdict hanging in the air, Rin Kuga turned and walked away from the stunned Kaguya Shinomiya. The heavy rooftop door clicked shut behind him, leaving her alone in the wind.
For a long moment, she simply stood there. Then, shock melted into frantic action. Her thumbs flew across her phone's screen. A litany of muttered disbelief spilled from her lips. "How… how can this be? The video… it's just gone. Completely gone! How?!"
It was, of course, impossible. But Rin Kuga did not operate within normal bounds. Through a subtle exertion of his will over causality—a mere flick against the fabric of recorded time—the digital evidence had been excised. It hadn't been deleted; it had been rendered never-having-existed.
Her entire plan, a move to leverage the video and force his cooperation, had evaporated. She, Kaguya Shinomiya, had been outmaneuvered before she even understood the game.
After several more fruitless seconds, a different thought cut through her panic. "Wait. The home server… there should be a backup." The words were a desperate whisper. "Agh! A tactical error!" She gritted her teeth. The humiliation of losing her composure in front of him, of that cold, knowing look, burned. I showed him my weakness.
Meanwhile, Rin had already descended. The bell for next period had long since rung, its echoes replaced by the low murmur of teachers' voices from behind classroom doors. The hallways were deserted.
He paused. The idea of returning to a classroom held zero appeal. His presence at this school was, at its core, a cover—a base from which to monitor the anomalous monster activity in this sector. Attendance records were a mortal concern, beneath the notice of a king.
Decision made, he turned and walked away from the classrooms. His destination: the school's main library, a surprisingly grand, multi-story building of older brick and glass that stood apart from the newer wings.
He pushed through the heavy doors and stepped inside.
Silence. A profound, book-lined silence. The space was expansive, with tall shelves creating deep canyons of knowledge. Long study tables sat completely empty under the warm glow of hanging lamps. His footsteps were hushed on the carpeted floor. Probably because everyone's in class, he reasoned, his gaze drifting over book spines. A perfect place to wait.
His moment of quiet was shattered by a voice from above.
"Ah—look out!"
The cry came a fraction of a second before the danger. A teetering stack of thick, heavy reference books slid from a high shelf, plummeting directly toward his head.
Rin's body moved without conscious command. His left hand shot up with terrifying, precise economy. His fingers splayed, intercepting the falling tower with a series of soft thuds, arresting its fall mere inches from his scalp. He absorbed the impact into his stance, not a single book slipping free. He lowered the armful to the nearest table with a quiet whump.
Only then did he look up.
On a rolling ladder leaned against the shelves high above stood a girl. Her most striking features were two long, thick braids of chestnut hair. They framed a face dominated by large, round glasses with lenses so thick they slightly magnified her eyes. Her attire was… anachronistic. A blouse buttoned to the neck and a skirt of such modest, ankle-grazing length it looked utterly out of place in a modern high school.
Seeing the crisis averted, the girl on the ladder let out a visible sigh of relief, a hand fluttering to her chest. Then, she noticed his unwavering gaze. There was no malice in his look, only a blunt, analytical assessment. A faint, knowing smile touched her lips. She smoothed down the impossibly long fabric of her skirt with a deliberate gesture.
"It's not very polite, you know," she said, her voice soft but clear in the silent hall, "to stare so intently at a lady's skirt."
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