Sora's POV
It had now been six weeks since I had started classes at this new high school. In six weeks, a lot has happened.
For starters, we ended up beating some cheaters at a card game, and through that learned the truth about the system behind this school.
Knowing this, it was inevitable for us to unite our class if we were to have any hope of winning the game by moving up to class A.
So we united the different elements of the class, using different methods. We even discovered how other classes worked.
We went as far as beating the president of the student council both to fill our wallets and to convince the future leader of our class to unite with us.
And finally, we managed to survive the first wave of exams through a technique as ridiculous as it was creative.
In other words, we were now at 300 class points and there were still a few weeks to go before the end of the first semester. Our first special exam was certainly approaching fast, so I had to be ready.
It was currently a Thursday evening, it had started to rain lightly and the sky had turned quite gray. Shiro had once again been invited on a girls' night out, and despite her initial hesitation, she had finally convinced herself to go. Although my sister's absence was still painful to bear, my symptoms had regressed and my attacks were becoming rarer and rarer.
While my habits regarding our relationship improved, other habits of mine remained the same. I currently found myself with two open pizza boxes and sodas, watching a video on my mobile with my butt on the floor and a blanket wrapped around me.
I guess my sister had become more sociable than me...
While I was concentrating on my video, I was slightly startled when I heard someone ring my doorbell. Shiro had only been out for 30 minutes; had she already snapped and preferred to go home?
I paused my video and stood up, walking towards the door, the blanket around my shoulders, as if I were wearing a king's cape. I put my eye to the small lens to see who was on the other side and my heart stopped in its tracks as I saw the face that appeared before me.
Instinctively, I even took a few steps backwards, bumping my hips against the small shoe table, almost falling backwards, my blanket leaving my shoulders and falling to the floor. I picked it up, folded it quickly and put it back on my bed.
On my way to the door again, I saw the pizza boxes lying around and quickly wanted to pick them up and send them to the kitchen. But if I did that... the person might leave!
Not knowing what to do, I decided to leave them as they were and hurried to open the door. When the door opened, a sweet perfume attacked my nose as her pretty blond hair with rosy tips shone before my eyes.
"Hello Sora-kun... am I disturbing you?"
This gentle voice was that of the beautiful Ichinose Honami who had visited me all the way to my dormitory. Me, who tended to imagine and anticipate all kinds of scenarios, could never have believed this one!
"Ichi- Honami?! Can I help you?"
My voice was slightly too powerful; I was embarrassed myself and knew I had to calm down. I coughed slightly and tried to correct myself.
"Excuse me... would you like to come in?"
Ichinose seemed a little lost, but she accepted the invitation with a smile. She placed her shoes next to mine and headed for the bedroom. As for me, I was lost, still holding the wrist of the door, now reminded of what a mess my room was.
Letting out an inner scream, I closed the door and rushed towards her.
"Sorry! Sorry! I'd taken two boxes of pizza, thinking my sister would be home early, but it turned out she wasn't... it's a bit of a mess..."
I clearly couldn't tell her that the reason there were two boxes of pizza was because I was eating a little too much. It was too disgraceful!
"Don't worry too much Sora-kun, to tell you the truth I'd rather not show you the state of mine either..."
"A-ah really? I find that hard to believe..."
I replied, scratching my head incessantly.
"What do you think? You think the girls' rooms are all clean and tidy? You haven't seen anything yet!"
I, who had never seen a girl's room before, certainly had no say in the matter. I walked over to the table to make some space and invited Ichinose to sit down. She replied with a smile and went to sit down next to the other pizza box.
"In that case, if your sister isn't back yet, how would you like to eat pizza together? I'll order her another one before she gets back."
"Mh? Can you order pizzas from home?"
"Of course, you can imagine that with all the services this school presents, there must be a store that does home delivery."
"I see..."
That was good to know, it would save me waiting alone in front of a crowd of students like today. That was hell.
"In that case, please, treat yourself."
I said, taking another slice of pizza myself. Ichinose took one just after me and almost jumped with joy.
"It's so good... even though I do my best to eat healthy, it's hard to get away from these dishes, they're addictive!"
Industrial food, the food was dosed so that the consumer always felt hungry. Even if after a good pizza you didn't feel like eating anything else, the craving would return after an hour. This was the effect caused by the poor quality of industrial food, a way for vendors to push people to buy more.
Everyone knew it, and yet everyone still bought it, because despite everything, it was undeniably good.
"Ah... wait I'll get you a cold drink."
I replied, fetching her a can from the fridge.
"Coke will do Sora-kun, thanks!"
She replied. I'd just realized that this was the first time I'd shared a meal with a girl, other than my sister. It was a strange feeling; it felt like a sweet, anxiety-free moment, yet... we weren't doing anything more than eating pizza and I wasn't doing anything more than fetching her a Coke, so I didn't understand why I felt this way.
I turned back to her, handing her the cold can.
"Thanks..."
She replied in a calm voice, carefully opening the can.
"You must be... perhaps wondering what I'm doing here, crashing at your place and coming to eat your sister's pizza?"
Part of me was constantly analyzing everything, it was inevitable, that was how I'd grown up, it wasn't my heart talking but my brain, from the moment she appeared before my eyes knocking on the door, I was constantly trying to figure out what could be the reason for her coming. I thought about all my past actions and all our interactions.
This way of being, totally contradicted the feeling of sweetness I was feeling earlier and yet... I was managing to live with both situations at the same time, something I didn't think possible.
" Well, it's true that I wasn't expecting it..."
I replied simply. She slowly ate her pizza, pointing at me as if to tell me to wait until she'd finished, her gestures, her facial expressions, the way she spoke, I could easily understand why people quickly became her friends.
She finally took a sip of Coke, then put the can down on the table.
"I just wanted to see how you and your sister were doing. It's been almost two weeks since the truth broke about this school and I haven't seen you since. It must be worrying for you."
Ichinose Honami, we'd only seen each other a few times, and yet she still had enough heart to remember me and Shiro. I remember our discussion in the elevator, when I guessed that she knew the truth about this school but didn't dare tell us. She certainly didn't want to worry us.
Now that everyone knew the truth, she wanted to see how we were coping.
"Well... our class is becoming more and more united so we're feeling a bit more comfortable with Shiro."
As much as part of me was dying to be more honest with her about who we were, inevitably it was still another class opponent, so as much as I wanted to think of her as a friend, I couldn't tell her the truth about us and how we controlled events. I didn't want to tell her that we were more determined than anyone to win.
"I'm glad to hear it... and I think it will work out for you too."
For a split second, she caught my attention, considering the situation of our class, the number of points we had lost and the fact that Shiro was, from the others' point of view, too young for this environment, she had no reason to say that. Either she was lying, wishing to comfort us, or something deep inside her convinced her otherwise.
"Mh? What do you mean Honami?"
"Well... this school seems rather prestigious so... if you and Shiro ended up here then you must also have abilities to show... especially your sister, who was recruited despite her age."
"I see... let's hope..."
I replied with a small smile, it was inevitable to believe that if a child like Shiro ended up here it was because she wasn't like the others. It was now clear that Ichinose Honami didn't underestimate us. With this information in mind, I could easily deduce that when she came to check up on me, she wasn't doing it out of concern, so it was... a way of observing us?
Yet I continued to observe her, and her feelings seemed sincere... Ichinose Honami seemed to be a rather interesting mystery.
"What about you, Honami? I see that the B class seems to be doing rather well!"
I was now looking for information of my own. Ichinose continued to eat her pizza bit by bit, sometimes talking while she ate. It was reassuring to see that even girls knew how to appear more " ordinary ".
"You'd think so, but our situation is pretty stressful too. Our direct opponent is class A, but for all that class C is also behind us."
"That's right, in other words, both classes can attack you at the same time."
"Exactly, the situation isn't easy to handle but I trust my classmates, we're also all united and I think we can count on each other!"
"I'm happy for you... although of course, we're opponents too so..."
"I understand you Sora-kun, you too will seek to bring us down one day and so will we, it's all part of the game so don't feel awkward towards that."
"I'm glad you understand."
"I think that despite everything that's going on, we should still enjoy our three years in this school so... even if we're adversaries, let's also enjoy our friendship!"
Ichinose raised her drink to me, I smiled as I took mine, and we toasted together. We were both in that situation where each of us was analyzing the other's intentions while accepting the fact that it was nice to share a moment of friendship together over pizza.
She had chosen to come and see me on the very day when Shiro wasn't by my side, in other words it was either a coincidence or she had looked at the map on our phone every day and was waiting to see what day it would be when me and my sister were in two different places.
It was a feature that was possible for those who had the other students in their contacts.
.
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Shiro's POV :
We had taken refuge in Keyaki Mall with Karuizawa Kei, Maya Satou and Mei-Yu Wang.
"Phew... it doesn't look like we'll be able to get out just yet, plus I didn't bring an umbrella."
"Yeah... too bad we'll have to settle down and get something to drink. Hot chocolate sounds good!"
Karazuiwa and Satou chatted amongst themselves. I had nothing to add to the conversation, so I decided to keep quiet and follow them.
We sat down in a local café and had each ordered something, I followed Karuizawa Kei's recommendation and ordered a hot chocolate as well.
I rarely took part in conversations with the other girls, but it was becoming increasingly comfortable to be with them... even if being away from my brother was still difficult. He was my shield, the one I believed in more than I believed in myself. Whenever I felt bad, I'd think of him and his confident smile and I'd suddenly feel better.
Whenever I was with my brother... I felt like nobody could touch me.
So when this school threatened to separate us and I saw for the first time some doubts on my brother's face, something weighed on me.
But to tell you the truth, it wasn't fear, it was something irrational that prevented me from thinking straight.
I was aware of one thing above all: if I didn't want to be separated from my brother, if I wanted to continue to be by his side, if I wanted him to protect me properly, then I in turn had to make efforts on my weak points.
Sociability was one of them, so I had to improve on that.
Over the last few weeks, this was our 4th outing together in six weeks.
I'd learned a lot about the other girls, but they didn't know much about me, so it was hard to tell them about myself without lying.
When they realized I was uncomfortable, they stopped asking me questions and just let me go with them.
Those girls were nice.
Especially the one called Karuizawa Kei, who, despite her princess-like appearance and the fact that she behaved as if she were superior to the others, was deep down a nice person.
Which made me wonder even more about the contrast in her behavior, but I didn't dare ask her any more questions than that, after all if I did then I'd have to talk about myself in turn.
"So Kei, how are things going with Yosuke-kun? It must be great to date someone like him..."
Satou was quick to ask again, she'd already done so on the last date, given her interest in Karuizawa's relationship with Hirata, it was highly likely that she was also attracted to him.
Karuizawa continued to drink her hot chocolate, certainly to give more thought to what she could tell.
"Well... frankly it's going really well, it's really nice to be with someone like him, he's really charming and then... no kidding, very handsome too."
The girls started laughing amongst themselves, I didn't understand why, it was normal to get together with someone you found attractive so I didn't understand the reason behind their laughter.
But I continued to listen to them.
"I don't see you two going out that often..."
Mei-Yu Wang added. She rarely asked Karuizawa questions but always seemed enthusiastic to listen to their conversations.
"Well... he's busy with his club activities and revision groups so... we walk back to the dorms together and also eat lunch together."
"It's true that he's quite a busy man. Frankly with everything that he does for the class in addition to playing sports, it's no wonder you went straight for him. I'm almost jealous."
Satou said with a laugh, pointing the tip of her spoon at Karuizawa, who was also laughing, slightly embarrassed.
"And you Satou-san, are you on to anyone right now?"
"Well... I was thinking of checking out the guys in the other classes too... especially the one who finished first in the most attractive guys list."
"Ah yes yes, I saw that list too! Yosuke-kun finished 2nd on it."
Karuizawa added, suddenly more awake.
"By the way..."
Satou and Karuizawa both turned in my direction, making me anxious.
"Shiro-chan, did you know that your big brother finished fifth on the list?"
Despite my speed in absorbing information, I'd still taken a few seconds to realize what she had just told me. My brother... was at the top of the list... of the most attractive guys?!
I was so surprised that even the other girls had noticed. Karuizawa showed me a photo of the list in which my brother's first name appeared in 5th position. I stared at the photo, unable to take my eyes off it.
He must absolutely not know this information.
"Well... even if he's not athletic, it's true that Sora-kun is rather handsome and funny..."
Satou added, looking at me, certainly to let me know that it was a compliment.
"Come on, maybe she doesn't want you to talk about her brother."
Mei-Yu added in turn. Although I didn't mind the discussion, it was true that I preferred to talk about something other than him, after all, I missed him.
"I'm planning to go and serve myself again, do either of you want anything?"
I hadn't finished my first cup yet so I was going to do without, the rain seemed to calm down every now and then but then started up again straight away, if we didn't find a solution I was going to have to stay here until late or get wet, either way it was unpleasant.
"Come to think of it, Shiro... you're with us, but has your brother managed to make any friends?"
Karuizawa asked me, Mei-Yu looked at me with some curiosity while Satou was gone. Come to think of it, it's true that my brother's relationships were hard to describe, sometimes I didn't know if he spoke to people as friends or just people he collaborated with.
"Well... sometimes he goes out with Sudou's group... he also often talks with Kushida, Hirata and Horikita-san..."
Karuizawa looked slightly irritated at hearing the latter's name.
"He managed to talk with Horikita-san? I didn't think anyone would be able to..."
It was normal for her to believe this, after all the first impression Horikita had left was far from the best. However, a lot had happened that led to change.
"Even Sudou's group isn't one of the best... he should make better friends!"
This time it was Mei-Yu who seemed the most irritated. It's true that from the outside it looked like these people were going to be a bad influence on my brother, but knowing him... it was going to be quite the opposite.
"I must say, our class is so weird... we've got people who study like they've got the hardest exam of their lives tomorrow while others behave like delinquents... we've got people who care about others like Hirata-kun while having people who only think about themselves like Kouenji-kun... I really don't understand this mix."
Karuizawa Kei continued to complain, but she was emphasizing an important point, the heterogeneity of our class was a real mystery, something that didn't seem to be found in other classes, at least on the surface.
"Speaking of him..."
Satou returned to the table with a cup and a chocolate bar, which she handed to me. I thanked her with a small smile and began eating it immediately. Sugar was nice.
"I often see him going off to cafés after class, always accompanied by a girl or several, I guess despite his personality he's pretty popular."
"Well... he undeniably has the most impressive body in class, I guess sometimes that's enough to make someone a popular student."
Karuizawa and Satou continued to talk about boys with each other, it was as if the world revolved around them in their eyes. But surprisingly, there was something pleasant and exciting about hearing gossip. It was a whole new set of feelings I hadn't experienced before.
The conversation went on like this for another long hour, I'd ended up drinking three cups of hot chocolate, we jumped from boy to boy, talking about each one. It was long and the discussion didn't seem the most useful, but yet it was strangely pleasant.
We took advantage of a brief moment when the rain stopped to go back into the dormitories. Now that I was away from the café, I was able to relieve some of my stress. Both because I was away from the crowd but also... because I was away from the student from class C, sitting next to us with her back to us, who certainly seemed to be listening to us or recording us.
From memory, her name was Shiho Manabe, I'd noticed her on the video of the class cameras we'd bought. She had her back turned, but was easily recognizable. She had spent the hour next to us, on her earphones, scrolling through her mobile, without going to the toilet or getting another cup to drink.
Given all this, it was quite possible that she was recording us or noting down discreet information about us. This behavior was otherwise not normal.
If I relate this incident to the pressure Sudou was under, then it was clear that Class C was in action. They were certainly trying to get information from Class D by making us more vulnerable through fear.
I had to inform my Nii.
.
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Horikita's POV
Just 30 minutes ago, I had settled comfortably into bed, looking forward to continuing my reading of Crime & Punishment, that masterpiece of Russian literature.
But now I was walking towards the classrooms; it was almost 7.15pm and no one was left in the corridors.
The classrooms remained open at all times, given that they were monitored by the cameras.
I gently opened the door to class D and checked that I was indeed alone.
I then sent a message to the person who had invited me here, asking if he would be arriving soon.
In the meantime, I sat at my desk as usual and stared out of the window in silence.
The classroom was dark and I didn't want to attract any more attention by turning on the lights.
I heard footsteps getting louder and louder in the corridors.
Suddenly, the classroom door slammed loudly, and the man who had called me here appeared before my eyes.
"Suzune!"
"I've already told you not to call me that, Sudou."
I replied calmly.
He seemed out of breath and walked in my direction quickly.
On closer inspection, I noticed that he was badly banged up.
"What... happened?"
The situation suddenly took me by surprise.
"I..."
"...You got into another fight?!"
Suddenly a feeling of disgust towards him rose strongly in me, after all that effort... he was still managing to stir up trouble for us.
I tried to calm down and asked him to explain himself, for a start.
"I didn't do anything! There's this guy... Kaneda from class C, he's in my basketball club and he's been provoking me a lot lately!"
"And so?! Did you hit him?"
"Absolutely not! I knew he was doing it on purpose, he invited me over after class to talk about it so I decided to go, knowing full well I wasn't going to fight. When I got there, he waited for me with two other of his friends and the three of them threw themselves at me."
"Did you hit them back..."
"I was dying to, but I didn't!"
"In that case that means you're the only one who's bruised here."
"Yeah... that's unfair! Why can they hit me freely?!"
"You still don't understand Sudou? If they did it, it was so that they could report you to the school. However, if they report you although you didn't hit them, then there's no proof, therefore you'll be saved."
"I..."
"That was the reason you called me here in a hurry, wasn't it? You knew they were going to do this."
" Well... by the time I got there... they were already pretty messed up. "
" ... "
I didn't know what to say when I heard those words, if someone had beaten all three of them at the same time then it was intentional. Someone had knocked them around, brought Sudou to see them and they in turn beat him up. By having Sudou and the three guys hurt at the same time, they had their proof.
"That Class C... they're deceitful..."
My heart was starting to beat slightly faster, I thought Class C was just going to attack Class B, it looks like they wanted to weaken us too at the same time.
"That was their plan, Sudou. I'm sure by tomorrow, or even tonight, they'll report this matter to the student council."
"In that case..."
"Tomorrow you'll certainly be summoned. I'll go with you."
"I... I'm sorry..."
I could see Sudou's fists clenching; this was a student who, even a few weeks ago, would have punched right back and only sought to solve problems through violence. Even now, all he wanted to do was beat them up.
It must be hard for someone like him to swallow his pride and apologize for falling into the trap.
But it was a hard trap to avoid.
"You don't have to apologize, you were provoked, you wanted to settle it through discussion and you fell into their trap. That's already admirable of you."
There was no need to expect too much from the start.
If this was me three weeks ago, I would certainly have refused to help him and would have preferred to let him get expelled in order to make progress with the good students.
But I've come to understand that everyone can make mistakes, including my brother, who let his guard down once, allowed himself to be tempted by violence and was set up by Sora and Shiro.
Even the man I considered perfect had weaknesses, so I couldn't blame him.
If I wanted to go all the way up to A class, I had to be able to face these kinds of obstacles, to be able to counter-attack Class C.
I couldn't let myself be beaten by such a ridiculous strategy.
I slapped both hands on the table and stood up.
"For tonight, go home Sudou and don't try to do anything silly, just wait patiently. Concentrate on something else. Is that understood?"
"Okay."
I walked slowly toward the exit door, Sudou still staring out the window, certainly not knowing what to say or do in situations like this.
"Thank you Suzune."
He said from behind me.
I left without answering him.
I absolutely had to go and see them.
.
.
.
The door to Sora's dormitory suddenly opened and the two siblings ended up in each other's arms, crying with joy at finally having found each other again, even if they had only been separated for an hour and a half, it was still too difficult.
As they cried on the doorstep, Ichinose Honami, who was still at Sora's house, appeared behind him. Shiro, not expecting this, took fright for a moment and took a few steps back before realizing the situation.
"N-nii... why were you alone with a girl?!"
Shiro said, her finger pointing gently in Ichinose's direction, her muscles beginning to twitch as if she were a broken doll processing too much information at once and couldn't cope with the reality she saw before her eyes.
Her brother was with a girl, she couldn't believe it.
Sora, in a panic, tried to calm her down, but it was mostly Ichinose who leaned forward and got down on her knees to give her a hug.
"Sorry Shiro-chan! I didn't mean to surprise you, I simply came to see how you were doing, but you weren't there."
Shiro froze cold; until now, no one but her brother had ever given her a hug, and once again, facing this reality was too much for the young girl.
However... she didn't panic, unlike the other students who made her feel uncomfortable, receiving a hug from Ichinose didn't seem to bother her...
She thought then of the power of human instinct that her brother had spoken of so often, that instinct which, deep down, told Shiro that she wasn't a dangerous girl.
However, she didn't return the hug, and Ichinose suddenly stepped back, realizing that she was being a little too brusque.
"I-I'll leave Sora-kun to you, Shiro-chan. I'll see you next time!"
She added, quickly putting on her shoes. It was 7:20 p.m. and the dormitory curfew started at 8 p.m., so it was best not to dawdle.
Ichinose waved to them one last time and quickly left.
"W-w-what was that, Nii?"
"Ah...Honami came to visit me earlier and we ended up talking at length, I had the opportunity to get to know her better."
"I-I see..."
It was a rare event, but for the first time in a long time, there was a little awkwardness between the two siblings.
However, this awkwardness didn't last long, because seconds later, the two threw themselves back into each other's arms, celebrating their reunion once again.
Sora led Shiro into the living room, holding her hand.
"I'd originally got you a pizza, but since it was going to end up cold, Honami ate it instead. But she ordered you a new one!"
A hot pizza was laid out on the table. On top was even a small piece of paper on which Ichinose had written an apology.
Shiro felt comfortable, seeing someone so thoughtful of her, someone other than her brother. At the same time, she thought about her outing with the other girls and their particular attention to her. Little by little... Shiro realized that the outside world wasn't just full of bullies.
She instinctively put her hand on her chest before taking small steps towards the pizza box, settling herself gently and beginning to eat slice after slice.
Sora settled down beside her, and the two began to tell each other about their encounters this evening.
Both Sora and Shiro continued to have experiences that were in stark contrast to those they'd had in the past. They refused to accept it for the moment, but they were gradually making friends.
They didn't want to accept that they were wrong, that isolating themselves from the world wasn't the answer. They wouldn't accept it for a long time, but little by little, unable to lie to themselves, they'd understand it too. That they were going to miss the next three years at this school.
Just as the two were about to play for the rest of the evening until it was time to go to bed, they heard a quick knock at the door. They looked at each other, then Sora got up and slowly approached the door.
Peering through the small hole, he noticed that on the other side was Horikita Suzune, looking out of breath and slightly soaked. He quickly opened the door.
"Suzune? What are you doing here?"
"I... I told you not to call me that..."
Sora didn't answer her and continued to observe her, waiting for an answer to his question.
" I... I think we need to talk..."
"Talk about what?"
"About...about our counter-attack on Class C..."
It took Sora a few seconds to understand the words she had just spoken, but a smile gradually spread across his face.
A/N : Hey everyone once again ! It seems like no matter how much time passes, sooner or later this fanfic will end up getting updates, the holidays were long and I had to sadly also attend the funeral of someone close to me in addition to a few other things, which all led to this late chapter !
I was thinking of coming back with a bang at first and giving you another cliffhanger after cliffhanger but I felt like doing so would make the story lose the charm of its epic moments so I decided to follow the flow of the story naturally by giving you a first-view based chapter of various character interactions and character development.
I was going to initially write a 10k chapter as a way to make up with my late update but it was only going to slow me down in publishing this so I decided to settle down at this pace.
I promise you, I won't give up on this light novel and once again I thank you lots and lots and lots about your support.
Please don't hesitate to comment on your thoughts about each part and to give me insightful reviews about my content, it really encourages me to see people's support.
My school resumes in January, having more free time I'll try to update you all more often.
And to finish this author's notes, I'd like to say that I might start writing more and more chapters based on first-view point of view as, it's easier from a narrative standpoint and also gives better depth to the feelings of each character.
Also please be mindful of the fact that, even if Sora and Shiro's inner thoughts may seem out of character, they're not. I've read all of the volumes of No game no life (expect vol. 11) and believe me when I say that the light novels tell us a lot about Sora and Shiro's inner struggles. They aren't simply some overconfident gods that win everything (even if they are).
I think I've said everything I had to say. See you soon !