Chapter 6: Horikita Suzune: I Have Never Been This Speechless
One hour later, at the school convenience store.
"How wonderful! As expected, I can buy handheld consoles in this world that weren't available before!"
Katsuragi Keima's face was full of blissful smiles, his hands carrying a shopping basket that was already packed to the brim.
"And there are games here I've never even seen before!"
Aside from a few essential daily necessities, the remaining space in the shopping basket was stuffed with game cartridges.
Keima, who previously thought only of completing the mission and leaving this world as quickly as possible, had changed his mind at this very moment. At the very least, he had to clear all the Galge in this world before he could leave!
"I say, Nii-sama, isn't this a bit too much?!"
Standing to the side, Elsie looked at the consoles and cartridges in Keima's basket and couldn't help but sigh.
"Forget about that, but as for the daily necessities, you actually bought the cheapest versions of everything!"
"Because products at this price point have the highest cost-performance ratio. Besides, points and the like must be saved for non-essential situations."
Keima's expression became incredibly serious as he pointed toward a certain spot not far away.
"Elsie, look over there."
Elsie followed the direction of Keima's finger. On the front row of a cabinet, free daily necessities were displayed, and in quite large quantities.
"What about them?"
"If the students aren't lacking in points, why would the school prepare these items that clearly look like relief goods?"
Keima used his free left hand to push up his glasses.
"This proves one thing—in this school, there are students whose points cannot support their daily lives, and the number is likely significant. Do you think this situation would happen if the monthly point distribution always remained at 100,000?"
"Yet another unfortunate encounter, it seems."
Just then, a familiar voice rang out beside Keima.
Keima turned his head. Horikita Suzune was standing nearby holding a shopping basket; she had also come to buy daily necessities, and the items she had selected were basically the same cheap brands as Keima's.
At this moment, Horikita faced the shelf, only slightly turning her head to observe Keima with the corner of her eye.
She had unintentionally overheard Keima's words just now, which caused her to notice the existence of the free relief supplies. Even someone like Horikita hadn't initially thought much about the school rules; she had simply been impressed by the school's generosity. Only after hearing Keima's words did she notice this discordant factor.
In her heart, she had to slightly acknowledge that Katsuragi Keima possessed excellent observation and analytical skills.
"Though you don't look particularly bright—considering you made such a 'remarkable' speech during the self-introductions—your brain is unexpectedly decent. I'll give you a bit of praise..."
"Eh???"
Horikita turned her head fully, only to find that Keima had already ignored her and walked several steps away. Even Elsie beside him hadn't reacted in time and hurriedly chased after him, leaving Horikita looking utterly dumbfounded.
"Hey, hey, wait a minute, Nii-sama! Are we leaving just like that?"
"That's right."
"But that was a rare chance for some one-on-one time with Horikita-san. Shouldn't you take the opportunity to get closer?"
"For a character—a person—with her personality, the more proactive you are in communicating with her, the worse the effect might be. Conversely, giving her a sense of distance and ignoring her will leave a deeper impression in her heart!"
"That's not exactly a good impression though..."
"It doesn't matter. As I said before, in games, the relationship with a female character has a barrier. You only need a certain trigger, a certain event to break through that barrier, and all previous impressions will flip to the positive side."
Keima said with a smile.
"Besides, meeting Horikita Suzune just now wasn't a coincidence. She was bound to come here to buy daily necessities; I only needed to wait for her here and say something that would likely catch her attention."
"I see! So when Nii-sama looked like he was struggling to choose in the game section earlier, he was actually stalling for time to wait for Horikita-san to arrive! Come to think of it, the electronic products area really does have the best field of vision for observing other areas!"
The look of admiration in Elsie's eyes grew a few degrees deeper.
Previously, the Chief of the Spirit Hunters had told her that Katsuragi Keima was the God of Conquest. Elsie had been a bit skeptical after meeting him, but after spending this day together, she was gradually realizing just how extraordinary he was.
"So, the consoles and game discs you bought were just a disguise?"
"What are you saying? I definitely wanted to buy these."
"But didn't you say we need to save money?"
"But I also said some things are 'necessary expenditures,' right! Those female characters inside are trapped in the 2D world waiting for me to save them! How can I just stand by and watch! Speaking of which, I feel like I should buy a few more titles. I only had to leave early because I saw Horikita appear. Let's go back and look some more!"
"???"
Keima ran back to the electronics section without stopping.
In the distance, watching the back of Katsuragi Keima as he drifted further away and even began to speed up his dash, the corners of Horikita Suzune's usually expressionless mouth twitched uncontrollably. Her breathing became slightly hurried.
She had never encountered a person like Katsuragi Keima.
Horikita Suzune disliked socializing and usually kept people at arm's length, but she had never met someone who was so indifferent to her.
What on earth is going on in this guy's head?
No, there's no need to get worked up over a guy like that.
Horikita took a deep breath, adjusted her emotions, and quickly left the store with the items she had just bought.
Further away, a pair of eyes that looked slightly listless projected a sharp gaze, landing on Katsuragi Keima as he picked out game cartridges.
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
He had been silently observing Keima from the edge of the store for a while.
He saw Keima in the electronics section first, then watched him make his way to the daily necessities section to encounter Horikita Suzune.
This was no coincidence; it was a deliberate encounter.
Theoretically, since they had just enrolled today, this should have been their first time meeting.
What is Katsuragi Keima's goal? Why did he do this?
Or rather—
On the very first day of school, has he already begun to layout some kind of scheme?
Could it be...
A hypothesis surfaced in Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's mind.