"Seniors — what exactly is this plan, and why does it have to be done in my room?"
The four of them had reassembled, sitting on the floor of Iori's room.
"Can't be helped. Your situations are a bit different, and honestly Sebastian's room is too bare — there isn't enough to work with. Iori's place is better."
Tokita smiled reassuringly at Iori, then stood up, grabbed the room's owner by the shoulders, and steered him toward the door.
"Alright — go take a walk outside for about ten minutes. Then come back with Nanaka and tell her you want to prove you've become a mature, responsible man."
"Then I'll go out with him."
Sebastian, sensing danger, made to get up and follow Iori — and was immediately pressed back down by Kotobuki's hand from behind.
"Not so fast. There are things we need your help with in here. You stay with us. Iori can go alone."
"What is this...."
Sebastian muttered, then settled unhappily back on the floor.
"I see.... Fine, I'll go then. But I'm telling you now — do not do anything to my room. My happiness for the next four years depends on what happens in here."
Iori looked at the three of them with some concern.
"What could go wrong with us here? Relax." Kotobuki grinned, showing a full row of white teeth.
"Somehow that makes me more worried, not less."
Iori cast one last uneasy look at his room, was fully pushed out by Tokita, and the door closed behind him.
Tokita turned back to Kotobuki and Sebastian, the only two remaining, and smiled.
"Right. Now that Iori's been sent away, let's get started."
"Ohh!" Kotobuki cheered with gusto. Sebastian looked at the two of them, inexplicably energized, with a mildly bewildered expression.
"What exactly is the plan, seniors? Why am I the one who stayed behind?" he asked carefully.
"Hm? Weren't you just questioning our abilities as seniors? So we kept you here to witness it firsthand." Kotobuki said, as though this were the most natural thing in the world.
"That's the reason? You two are oddly childlike sometimes."
Sebastian looked at the two muscular men in front of him with an expression caught between laughter and resignation.
"I don't like the sound of that."
Kotobuki gave Sebastian a glance, stood up, and pulled a large black bin bag out from under Iori's bed.
"Anyway — enough talk. Time to start setting up the room."
"Wait — how did we get from our plan to setting up a room?"
Sebastian took the black bag as it was handed to him, peered inside — and immediately sucked in a sharp breath, scrambled backward several steps, and sat down hard on the floor.
"Oh — you're blushing."
Kotobuki and Tokita smiled at Sebastian's horrified expression as they upended the bag and tipped the contents out.
"This — this isn't right. Why are you pulling these out? What are you trying to do?"
Sebastian's face was getting steadily paler. His mind was racing. No matter how hard he thought, he could not work out why the two seniors had suddenly produced this many adult DVDs.
"Kotobuki — I think this one's good, put it at the front. Iori seems like the type who'd prefer black stockings."
"Hm.... your taste isn't bad, Tokita. That is genuinely a quality selection — put it under the bed."
The two seniors continued their private deliberations, sorting the discs into batches and arranging them around Iori's room — on the floor, on the bed, on the desk.
"Are you two actually listening to me?"
Sebastian, having finally recovered his composure, pointed at them furiously.
"Hm? You still haven't figured out what we're doing? Sebastian, I'm a little disappointed in you."
Kotobuki looked up and shook his head with the air of someone watching a capable student waste their potential.
"Exactly. We were counting on you to weigh in on what young people like these days. Instead you've been sitting there doing nothing. You really are lazy, Sebastian."
"That's not the point! Why are you just filling Iori's room with these things without a word of explanation? What is this supposed to accomplish?!"
Sebastian pointed at them in anguished accusation.
At that, the two who had been engrossed in their work glanced at each other, then looked at Sebastian with mildly puzzled expressions.
"The reason Nanaka won't let you out today is most likely that she still sees you two as children. And when parents ground their kids for misbehaving, that's perfectly normal, isn't it?"
"Leave the tangents aside — even granting we've been treated like children, why are you covering the floor in this stuff?"
Sebastian waved a hand and cut to the only thing that actually mattered.
"Generally speaking — when parents discover their child has been hiding this sort of thing, don't they usually have a quiet word along the lines of: 'You've grown up'?" Tokita said this with complete naturalness.
"And on top of that," Kotobuki added, "once Nanaka sees this much in Iori's room, how could she possibly feel comfortable leaving him alone in the house with her? This is a perfectly open stratagem."
"But aren't you worried Iori might actually get thrown out? I might get thrown out along with him."
Sebastian's mouth twitched slightly. The logic of the two people in front of him felt faintly explosive.
"Don't worry. Since you've trusted us with it, we will see it through. And if you do get thrown out, I'll put in a word with the bar owner to take you two in."
Kotobuki came over and gave Sebastian a consoling pat on the shoulder.
"If I said right now that I've lost confidence in you two — would you stop?"
Sebastian looked up at Kotobuki and tested the question.
"Not a chance. This is a matter of our pride as seniors. There is no backing out halfway."
Kotobuki shook his head with unwavering conviction, released Sebastian, and went back to redecorating the room.
Sebastian watched the two of them working away with great enthusiasm, and the sense of impending disaster inside him grew steadily stronger.
He quietly slipped his phone out of his pocket and tried calling Iori.
The call connected after a few rings. Sebastian turned to face the wall, concealed the phone, and spoke to Iori in a quick, urgent whisper.
"Iori — something has gone very wrong in your room. Get back here—"
"Is that Sebastian calling? Or Imamura?"
From the other end of the line came a familiar girl's voice.
"It's nothing, Chisa — just a spam call. Where were we...."
Then the call clicked dead.
Sebastian stared at the call log on his screen for a long moment.
"What's wrong, Sebastian? Why are you facing the wall by yourself? Come help—"
"I'm helping."
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