Alex's Pov
It has been a few weeks since the sports festival and it decided to contact Arisu, I made sure to tell her this will be conversation she will not want Kamuro to hear. We are meeting inside her dorm room, she insisted ok, I am not a creep.
I wore some casual clothes; I think I am starting to look pretty handsome now that I have some noticeable muscle to my body. When I arrived I knocked at the door and waited, it took a little but considering her heart condition I was happy to wait. When she opened the door she was dressed in a very conservative dress, since it was her it was very cute, she lead me inside.
Once we were inside she brought me to a small table where she had prepared some kinds of snacks, it seemed to be fresh pastries. They looked really good; I wonder if she made them.
"Arisu did you make these; they look very good."
"Fufu I am glad you noticed, I have been practicing cooking recently, would you mind testing them?"
I took a few different things she made and tried them, after eating them I could tell they were very good.
"If I had to say make any critique it would be that you should add a little sugar, since you are making these for Ayanokoji you should know that he likes sweets a lot. He even calls ice cream Ice Cream-chan, cooking is definitely a way to win him over though."
"Fufu so my childhood friend is in love with ice cream, I see. I will have to learn how to make some, what makes you think I want to win his heart though?"
"Since you are obsessed with him I don't think there is anyone else you could even consider romantically. Isn't it that you want to beat him and then make him yours? Maybe your goal is to make a child between a real genius and the false genius? Either way you are definitely madly in love with him, even if it is in a weird way."
"It seems you know more about me than I thought, you are really dangerous, aren't you Alex-kun? Maybe it will be better to get rid of you now to avoid future risk?"
"Maybe, but once we make a deal similar to the one we made to the second day of school you won't be able to let me go, I assure you what I know you will want to hear as much as last time."
"I see, it seems you still have a large amount of valuable information, since you only work for yourself and only deal with me it would be stupid to dispose of you now. Very well, I will owe you a favor, what do you know."
"Sometime during the third semester of this year your father will be suspended as chairman."
"WHAT?!?! What is that supposed to mean?"
"I will tell you something else, before that happens you know who will be visiting the school to reacquire your childhood friend."
"I see, so when he can't get Ayanokoji-kun to drop out he will get rid of my father to get to him, no doubt his replacement will be hostile to Ayanokoji. Do you know if my father will be alright?"
To no surprise Arisu cares a great deal for her father.
"From what I know you don't have to worry too much; he will be investigated for something he didn't do and only have to step down temporarily. I do not know when he will be able to return but I assure you he wont be physically harmed or anything."
"I see, thank you for the information. I won't tell my father since it won't do any good, if it is that man all that knowing would do it put him in even more potential danger. Knowing soon we have a hostile director is very valuable information, I will have to prepare. I assume you have some kind of relationship with Ayanokoji by now?"
"Him and I are on working terms you could say, he knows what I told you, I am sure he is also making preparations. Try to have your battle with him soon, soon we all might have to join forces, from what I know your homeroom teacher will be a good ally since he cares about students very much."
"I agree, before you leave I should tell you that although I have my heart set on Ayanokoji-kun I also see you as man. Take that as you want."
"I appreciate that Arisu, but I still loss out to Ayanokoji in many ways."
"Could you give an example?"
"Don't ask how I know but he is tied for having the biggest **** in our grade, and I am not the one tied with him. Anyways I will see you next week for chess like usual."
With that I got up and left, for some reason Arisu was Fufuing and drooling, it completely ruined her cute and innocent appearance.
As I walked back to my dorm I was thinking about what happens during Vol. 6, from what I remember it is a bunch of character progression stuff. Like when he first talks to Sato and when the Ayanokoji group is formed, the Paper Shuffle will also be announced. I will spend the time I have furthering my relationships with Mii-chan, Ike, and Matsushita. Sotomura and I text or talk literally everyday so I don't have to worry about where I stand with him.
To be honest I am still incredibly surprised by Ike, he has been doing well academically and since he did better than people thought in the festival he is gaining some popularity. I wonder if some kind of event happened because I am pretty sure Shinohara likes him already, I will have to aid him in that.
I have also pretty much confirmed that Kei is working with Ayanokoji, I am really happy about that.
After pretty long few weeks that I spent training mainly with Fuka the Paper Shuffle Exam was finally announced, my class came up with the plan to get partners the same way to the book.
I think I might ask Fuka to teach me how to fight soon, at this school that is an important skill, especially come next year.
Ryuen has been searching for X as well, since I am not X I don't care, I have noticed some Class D students following me and it honestly annoying. No doubt they will report that I play chess with Arisu and that will cause problems for me.
Once we got our partners I got Matsushita again........ I think she is doing it on purpose this time too. At least now I don't have to study very hard and we can just hang out. Since I am above average and she pretends to be a little below average it makes sense that she would be paired with me, but still, she must be doing it on purpose.
When Hirata asked me to join one of the study groups the class was making I respectfully declined and said I prefer to work alone or in pairs. After some convincing and bring Horikita into the fold it was decided I would study with Matsushita only. Some of her friends teased her saying we were going to be together alone a lot, it seemed to work on her as well.
Our "study" sessions consisted of us sitting in my room talking about random stuff or reading books. Since she was a smart girl it was enjoyable to converse with her, I also told her some other information that was not very important. Since knowledge is power it is wise of me to give her some knowledge to understand the cross-class landscape. With her understanding the basic situation of what is going on it will make her much more powerful of an ally, stuff like Arisu's plans and Ayanokoji and Kei were off limits of course.
As her trust for me grew the more she decided to hang out with me, I was not so dense as to miss the reason why. As the exam got closer we did actually have to study some times to make sure we did good, but most of the time we did random stuff, I even bought some board games to play with her.
To be honest the slow life I lived during this time was really enjoyable, since I had started learning basic martial arts recently with Fuka I was feeling really good. A peaceful life like Ayanokoji wants is not bad, it does get boring though. That is why I have recently taken up the hobby of audio surveillance, I bought a sonic listening device as well as a few handheld wireless recorders with the capability to send the data elsewhere. These devices were not cheap but will prove very helpful in the future, I had a fun time practicing with them as well. I had to embrace my inner Stalker-chan as I followed certain people from my grade around to record their conversation.
This would definitely be considered very immoral and wrong, even illegal in some places, but I am not worried about that kind of stuff right now.
When I got bored of that stuff I also bought a drone with video capabilities, I don't think will be able to use these things often and I spent almost 500,000 points on all this tech but it is worth it to me.
After a while it was finally time for the exam, I had told Horikita I wouldn't do anything this time so it is all in her hands. I am sure a similar bet about the exam scored as cannon happened with Horikita and Kushida, Ayanokoji has no doubt been working behind the scenes in a similar way.
On a side note I had noticed a few girls looking at me differently, I guess my increase physical had gained some attention. If anything it will be troublesome, having people following me around or wanted to meet up with me will only be draining and distracting.
I am not sure why but Matsushita insisted on us doing good on this exam, I reluctantly agreed, I don't know what she is playing at but I get the feeling it will be troublesome.
When the exam was graded and the grades came out most of the class was surprised, usually I get high 70s or low 80s and Matsushita gets 60s, but on this exam I got low 90s and Matsushita got high 80s. Literally everyone in the class except Ayanokoji was looking at us with amazement, the first person to speak to us why Kei.
"Ne, Chiaki-chan you did really well with Alex-kun as a partner. You did the three-legged race together too, is there something going on there?"
"N-no, Alex-kun and I just have good chemistry. We also studied a lot just to make sure we passed, working in a pair is actually easier for me as well so I think that is why we did so well."
Her face was getting red, I see, so that is why she wanted us to do good.
What a cunning woman.
"Oh, so you two have good chemistry, I see. You also spent a lot of time together studying, I wonder if you did anything else, maybe something lewd?"
Why Kei was talking about this in front of the class was beyond me, maybe she was trying to help Matsushita establish her claim on me? I decided to join in.
"Chiaki-chan was a really big help for me when we studied together, we is a very good listener and teaching her stuff also helped me improve. Sometimes when we studied she also would cook dinner for us, I am sure she will be an amazing wife someday."
I think I took it too far because now most of the girls around me started blushing, Matsushita was frozen after I called her by her first name which I only did once before. Hirata and Ike gave me a thumbs up for some reason, I could see some of the girls looking at Matsushita with jealousy as well. Even if it was only a few it was clear that I had definitely started to catch some eyes, hopefully with Matsushita establishing a public claim on me and my response other girls won't bother me.
After a few seconds of silence some people in my class returned to normal activities and then the rest followed, I could see Sae at her podium starring daggers in Matsushita, I almost started laughing when I saw it. I will need to give her some more attention, usually I meet up with her every other week to do 'that' but it seems that will not be enough soon.
While Ayanokoji is dealing with Ryuen I will be setting my trap for Kushida, time to trap her in a maze like the rat she is.
I can't wait to watch you dance for me Kushida.