When Hara Kei finished speaking, Teacher Zeshiro looked as if lightning had struck her. Her knees buckled, and for a second it seemed she might collapse right there at the stairwell landing.
It was a dangerous spot.
If she lost her balance in that moment of shock, she would probably tumble all the way down the stairs.
Even for a PE teacher with a sturdy body, that would mean a trip straight to the infirmary—if not the hospital.
Just as her body started to sway, a slim figure darted past Hara Kei and caught her.
It was Yukinoshita Yukino.
After steadying the teacher, Yukinoshita gently pulled her upright—and immediately began patting down every pocket and fold of the woman's clothes.
Not because she had suddenly developed a strange affection for the teacher's toned figure.
She was searching for evidence.
Hara Kei's reasoning was sound, but in modern society, logic alone wasn't enough to convict someone. You needed solid proof.
No matter what wrongs Teacher Zeshiro had committed, her title as a teacher still gave her authority over students.
That was one of the main reasons Hara Kei had brought Yukinoshita Yukino with him.
He was fairly certain she would be carrying the evidence on her person—but not completely certain.
And if he, a male student, tried to search her and came up empty-handed, he could easily end up being accused of molesting a teacher.
Given how cornered Zeshiro already was, there was no need to take that kind of risk.
"Found it," Yukinoshita murmured.
From the teacher's jacket pocket she produced a small digital camera.
Powering it on, she flipped through the memory—and, unsurprisingly, found the evidence they needed.
There they were: photos of Chika Fujiwara and Kaguya Shinomiya, both wearing the school's regulation swimsuits.
Caught red-handed.
That was why Hara Kei and Yukinoshita had rushed here in the first place—to intercept this camera before Teacher Zeshiro could hand it over to Akasaka Ryūnosuke.
"Phew." Seeing everything go so smoothly, Hara Kei let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He slipped out his phone, apparently intending to call the police.
At this point, turning Zeshiro over to law enforcement seemed like the safest course of action.
But before he could finish dialing, his hand suddenly felt light—
The phone was gone.
And the person who took it wasn't the teacher.
Zeshiro was sitting against the wall now, her face drained of color, knees drawn up to her chest, head buried between them—a picture of utter despair.
No, the one who had snatched his phone was Yukinoshita Yukino herself.
Her finger slid across the screen, closing the dialer app.
"Hara Kei," she said softly, a faint smile curling her lips. "Don't you think this is… an opportunity?"
He blinked at her, confused by the tone.
That smile—it wasn't the pure, lotus-like smile he remembered.
It was sharper. Predatory.
The kind of smile only a bloodthirsty hunter would wear.
In that instant, her entire aura changed.
The composed, dignified Yukinoshita Yukino faded away—
and something far more dangerous took her place.
Like a poppy in bloom: beautiful, intoxicating, and deadly.
After closing the dialer, her gaze lingered on a bright icon on the phone's home screen.
Her lips twitched faintly, but she still tapped it open, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.
"So this is the mobile game that president developed?" she asked.
Clearly she wasn't unfamiliar with smartphone games; her fingers moved deftly as she navigated through menus, opening the character archive to confirm Hara Kei's earlier statement.
"The highest-level character is… you?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
Because of Akasaka Ryūnosuke's photo-conversion tech, it was easy for her to match each in-game character with their real-life counterpart.
She gave Hara Kei a subtle, bemused look—as if she hadn't expected him to be that self-absorbed.
Well, he was a high-school boy.
Wanting to be the strongest was practically a given.
"What do you mean by an 'opportunity'?" Hara Kei asked, frowning.
"The purpose of the Lambs' Circle," she said smoothly, "is to help me—well, Yukino—become the next student council president, isn't it?
To do that, we need to build connections with other clubs, win their favor, and secure their votes."
"If we just hand this case over to the police, both the girls' swim club and the IT Club will take a hit.
Sure, we're in the right—but human emotions aren't decided by right and wrong alone."
Her words flowed naturally now; the faint rasp she sometimes affected had vanished completely.
Her tone—mature, resonant—was utterly unlike the Yukinoshita Yukino he knew.
If Yukino's voice was clear and delicate, like the plip of winter rain striking a leaf,
then this voice was like summer rain drumming against a plantain leaf—
less crisp, but deeper and fuller.
"…You mean you want to forgive them?" Hara Kei asked cautiously.
He was starting to understand where she was going with this.
"Yes. Forgive—but not in the ordinary sense."
Her smile lingered, sly and knowing.
"I mean it in the Christian sense. This used to be a missionary school, after all—may as well do as the locals do."
"You know the saying: If someone strikes your left cheek, offer them your right as well. People call it the religion of forgiveness."
"But that's not quite right." She lifted a finger and wagged it lightly.
"In Christianity, forgiveness isn't the same as absolution. If everyone were innocent, what purpose would Judgment Day serve?"
"Forgiveness," she said, eyes narrowing, "means suspension of punishment. Indefinite parole.
And that's the cruelest punishment of all—because the sinner must live forever in fear."
"…So what you're really saying," Hara Kei muttered, "is that you plan to hold this over Teacher Zeshiro and Akasaka Ryūnosuke to achieve your goals."
He looked at her—
and for the first time, his eyes were full of unease.
"The Yukinoshita Yukino I know… would never do something like that. Who are you?"
The girl met his gaze and laughed brightly.
Then she reached up, plucked off her wig, and revealed the short hair underneath.
"Allow me to introduce myself," she said, smiling. "I'm Yukinoshita Haruno—Yukino's older sister."
Sunlight streamed through the window at the stairwell corner, gilding her hair and outlining her figure in gold.
Her smile seemed to shine even brighter under that glow—
But then—
"You heard that, right?" Hara Kei's voice cut through the silence.
From his pocket, he produced another phone—different from the one in Haruno's hand.
The line was already open, the speaker set to hands-free mode.
And from the phone, a cheerful, familiar voice flowed out—one Haruno recognized immediately.
"Eh? Yukino has an older sister? That's news to me!"
Chika Fujiwara's voice.
For the first time, Haruno's radiant smile faltered just a little.