As for Hiyori's reaction, Asakusa Tōru knew nothing about it. After getting down from Ryūen Kakeru's desk, he turned around and walked over to Ibuki Mio, who had actually been secretly watching him from the back.
"…What do you want?" Biting her lip, Ibuki Mio lifted her head, wearing an expression that was far from pleasant.
In Asakusa Tōru's eyes, Ibuki Mio's behavior looked very much like she was deliberately trying to show how hard she was to mess with—like a small animal baring its claws and teeth, bluffing ferociously.
Well, maybe calling her a "small animal" wasn't entirely accurate. After all, Ibuki Mio did seem to possess a certain degree of physical strength; using such a term might be a bit unfair.
Still, the general idea got across.
The way Ibuki was acting right now looked, to Asakusa Tōru, a lot like a stray cat—one that clearly longed for a new high school life but didn't dare take a step forward into others' social circles, later regretting its loneliness, yet when someone actually reached out a hand, it would glare viciously and drive them away, repeating the same cycle all over again.
So when dealing with someone like Ibuki Mio, the approach shouldn't be the same gentle one he'd used with Shiina Hiyori.
Instead—
"Take it. Hush money." He decisively grabbed Ibuki's hand and stuffed yet another recorder—pulled from who-knows-where—into her palm.
Feeling the cold metallic touch placed into her hand, Ibuki Mio instinctively raised an eyebrow, her face full of confusion.
"Hah?"
Hush money? Whose mouth was being shut—hers?
Why would her mouth need to be shut?
And more importantly, what did this guy just shove into her hand?
Lowering her head, Ibuki Mio finally got a clear look at the object she'd been given.
…A recorder???
…Why would he give this to her?
What a weirdo.
Lifting her head again, she looked at the man in front of her—his face not particularly bad-looking, wearing a gentle smile—and immediately reached a conclusion.
And judging by it all, a weirdo with something wrong in the head.
"Even though I don't think you'd say anything anyway, taking it won't do you any harm," Asakusa Tōru said with a smile, casually patting Ibuki on the shoulder. "Free stuff—no reason not to take it, right?"
With that, he didn't bother to see how Ibuki reacted, and simply walked straight out of the Class C classroom.
Asakusa Tōru might have left, but Ibuki Mio had nowhere to go.
After all, this was her classroom to begin with. There was no reason for her to leave.
Holding the recorder that had been forcibly stuffed into her hand, Ibuki Mio's mind was a complete mess.
On the first day of school, some guy from another class suddenly showed up, shoved a recorder into her hands, and said it was hush money.
She didn't even know what mouth it was supposed to hush. Ah—wait, if she didn't know anything, did that count as being silenced already?
…What kind of nonsense am I even thinking?
No, calm down. Start from the beginning and sort this out.
I, Ibuki Mio, a student of Class 1-C, came to school, found my seat, and waited for everyone to gather so we could have homeroom and then the entrance ceremony.
Before that, the woman named Shiina Hiyori arrived in the classroom earlier than me, and had no intention of greeting me.
…Fine, no greeting then. It's not like I was planning to chase after people to make friends anyway.
Then after that, that strange man appeared.
First he sat down in the seat of that Ryū-something guy, then he very familiarly greeted that Shiina person, followed by introducing himself.
Honestly, up until then, Ibuki had thought he was greeting Shiina because he knew her.
Turns out he didn't know Shiina at all—and wasn't even a student of Class C.
So what the hell did he come here for?
And seriously—if everyone was a first-year student, then they should've all gone through security checks, right?
Other than the terminal they received and the uniforms sent out in advance, wasn't nothing else allowed in?
So where did this damn recorder come from?
Ibuki Mio couldn't figure it out at all.
But Asakusa Tōru's last words weren't wrong.
Free stuff—no reason not to take it.
Who cares where it came from? Since he gave it to her, she'd keep it.
...
At Advanced Nurturing High School, recorders were a rather magical tool.
As long as you used one to record critical statements, you could take it out and use it as leverage.
Whether it was someone revealing their plans, or exposing their true face, with just a tiny recorder, most problems could be turned into non-problems.
So Asakusa Tōru had a dream.
That dream was to let everyone in Advanced Nurturing have a recorder of their own!
…Yeah, right.
What he was handing out were recorder copies.
As mentioned before, when he took out a second recorder, the previous one would turn into a "seemingly ordinary" recorder.
But "seemingly ordinary" meant—it wasn't ordinary at all.
Once the distance closed to a certain point, the recorder in his hand could choose to read all the recordings stored in nearby recorder copies.
Sure, just handing out recorders like this didn't guarantee he'd capture the recordings he wanted.
But—what if?
Of course, when it came to choosing who received these recorder copies, he wasn't handing them out completely at random.
He chose people with names and faces—those who had a chance of being diary-copy holders.
Ibuki Mio and Shiina Hiyori.
Compared to complete background characters, they were far more likely to have received diary copies.
Although distributing recorders like this carried a slight risk of exposure, as long as he didn't mention it in the diary…
Who would ever think of it?
"There are actually quite a lot of weirdos at this school."
One more person handing out recorders wouldn't make a difference. One less wouldn't change anything either.
"Right?"
There was still some time before the official start of school. Considering Ryūen Kakeru's notoriously severe habit of arriving late, there was plenty of time.
He could wander around the upperclassmen's classrooms, pretend to snoop for information he already knew, and use that as cover for why he'd have advance knowledge later.
Even though directly using that information probably wouldn't cause any real problems—after all, this was still just a school, and he was living in a thoroughly peaceful modern society—
If he could avoid leaving traces, it was better to leave as few as possible.
"Heh heh heh heh~"
Time ticked away. After casually wandering around the other grades, chatting idly with a few upperclassmen, and putting on a show of gathering information under the cameras, Asakusa Tōru soon returned once more to the vicinity of the Class 1-C classroom.
After waiting a bit, a bespectacled teacher who looked distinctly untrustworthy walked past Asakusa Tōru and turned into the Class C classroom.
Which meant that this man was Class C's homeroom teacher—Sakagami Kazuma.
The bell announcing the official start of school rang out, and the hallway outside the classroom was left with only Asakusa Tōru.
Judging by the timing, it was about right.
Then let's begin.
Eavesdropping.
...