"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning."
— Jean-Paul Satre
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
The next morning, Kiyotaka arrived in class earlier than usual.
Hirata was the first to notice him.
"Good morning, Ayanokōji-kun," he waved at him, smiling.
Only Mii-chan and Matsushita were with him this time — no surprise; they were usually the ones to arrive this early.
Both girls waved as well when they heard Hirata.
"Good morning," Kiyotaka replied, nodding.
Turning his gaze over to the rest of the room, he saw only three other people with them: Yukimura, Ijūin, and... Makida Susumu.
Kiyotaka nearly forgot his name. Then again, he never heard the guy talk before.
Seven people by 7:30, Kiyotaka thought.
Although it shouldn't be that weird that only a few of them were in class an hour before it started, he did notice how other classes like 1-A and 1-B had already half of their class in the room already.
He much preferred the peace that was Class 1-D's relative emptiness, though.
Crossing the room, Kiyotaka paused by his seat. He glanced at it, then at Horikita's. He decided the angle was a little off, so he adjusted it a few inches to the left.
Much better.
Placing his bag under the desk, he finally sat down.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
By 8 AM, Horikita Suzune arrived in class. The usual time for her.
Her gaze swept the room. Barely half the class had shown up. And loud, as usual. How some of them even passed middle school was beyond her.
Then, her eyes reached the farthest row to the left. She fought the urge to click her tongue in annoyance.
The words from swim class surfaced before she could stop them.
"You've been staring at me for ten seconds. Why?"
Tch.
Although the question was fair, Horikita had to begrudgingly admit, her pride couldn't accept how her words were thrown back at her.
And it wasn't ten seconds. Five, at most. Not that it mattered. Why was she even thinking about this?
Suppressing the thought, she strode to her desk, dropped her bag beneath it, and sat down.
"Is there something on my face?"
Horikita gave no response. Instead, she reached into her bag, drew a small object between her fingers. In one smooth motion, she flicked her arm sideways.
But instead of meeting flesh, the compass stabbed at empty air.
Ayanokōji glanced her way. "How violent," he said.
His face was as neutral as ever. But she knew... she just knew the boy was actually feeling smug.
Only now did she notice—he'd shifted his seat, just a few inches out of reach. So that's why...
"Tch..."
She withdrew her hand and returned the compass to her bag.
"My bad."
Horikita glared at him.
To her, it wasn't the apology that stung.
It was how Ayanokōji had realigned his seat after her failure. It felt like he was rubbing salt in the wound.
He was wordlessly telling her she was predictable.
She suppressed the desire to hit him. It wasn't worth it.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
Soon the lunch bell rang. As expected students began to gather with their friends to spend lunch together.
Kiyotaka, meanwhile, remained in his seat. He told Hirata and the others he'd just catch up to them in the cafeteria, because he needed to talk to someone first.
Nobody asked tried to pry as to who he was going to talk to, which he appreciated.
A short distance away, familiar voices drifted across the room.
"Kikyō-chan, do you want to stop by a café on our way back today?"
"Sure, let's go! Oh, but wait just a minute, okay? I want to invite one more person."
With that, Kushida headed toward Horikita, who was putting her textbook into her bag.
"Horikita-san, would you like to come with us to a café today?" She asked.
"I'm not interested." Horikita didn't look up. The answer was flat, final.
Despite the harsh rejection, Kushida kept smiling.
This wasn't an unusual sight. Since the entrance ceremony, Kushida had regularly tried to invite Horikita to join her and her friends — and failed every time.
"I see. Well then, I'll try inviting you again another time."
But as she turned to leave, Horikita's voice called out behind her.
"Wait, Kushida-san."
Kushida paused, a hopeful look flickering across her face — perhaps thinking Horikita was about to relent.
"Don't invite me again. It's a bother."
Kushida's expression didn't falter. She simply smiled and replied, "I'll invite you again."
Kushida then ran back to join her friends, and they left the room.
"Kikyō-chan, just stop inviting Horikita-san. I hate her—"
The careless remark from one of the girls wasn't hard to overhear. Both Kiyotaka and Horikita caught it.
Horikita, to her credit, remained unfazed. Not that it surprised Kiyotaka — she genuinely didn't care what others thought of her.
At least, for now, Kiyotaka reminded himself.
"You won't try to invite me to places, will you?" Horikita asked suddenly, glancing sideways at him.
"You'd just say no anyway. There's no point in trying," he replied.
"I'm relieved to hear that."
She finished packing her things and left the classroom alone.
Kiyotaka stayed in his seat for a while.
In the original timeline, Hirata was supposed to approach him after the short conversation with Horikita. He would talk to him about Horikita, concerned at her growing alienation from the class.
But, with them being friends in this timeline, they were able to talk about the same topic over text. They did so last night.
It seemed that even with changes, some events were bound to happen in one form or another. Not that he minded.
Hirata probably assumed he'd stayed behind to talk to Horikita.
After a short pause, Kiyotaka rose from his seat and made his way out of the room, pretending to head toward the cafeteria.
And just as he expected, a voice called out behind him.
"I'm glad I caught you, Ayanokōji-kun. There's something I wanted to talk about — do you have a minute?"
Kushida met his gaze with a friendly smile.
"Yeah, sure..."
"I'll just ask you outright. Ayanokōji-kun, have you seen Horikita-san smile even once?"
Kiyotaka feigned a contemplative look. In reality, he was thinking just how weird the question was. Actually, even future Kiyotaka found the question weird.
"No, not that I can remember," he replied. On-script.
At that moment, Kushida stepped closer and took his hand in hers. Kiyotaka noticed she changed perfumes, because this time, she smelled like flowers. It still smelled good.
"You know... I want to become friends with Horikita-san," she said softly.
"That much is obvious," Kiyotaka said with a small nod. "I think even Horikita could tell that's your intention. You're the only one who still tries to approach her, after all. Everyone else gave up."
Kushida processed his words. "You seem to know Horikita-san quite well, Ayanokōji-kun," she remarked.
"I wouldn't say that. It's just an obvious observation," he replied. "After all, not everyone would bother approaching someone who keeps telling them no. Obviously, it's because they really want to be friends with that person."
Kiyotaka went a little off-script there, but figured it was fine. Kushida was still in tunnel vision at this point. And so, he took this as a chance to shape how she perceived him.
"Yeah... I really want to be friends with her," she admitted, looking a little downcast.
"I know, but didn't Horikita already warn you not to try again? I don't know what you can say to her next time," Kiyotaka replied.
Of course, he knew Kushida wouldn't give up. He was just playing along with the script.
"Won't you...help me?" she asked.
"I understand how you feel, Kushida, but..."
"So that means...you can't?" she pressed, with an almost too-perfect pleading expression.
He almost sighed. "Not that I can't. I'm just saying it won't be easy," he clarified — again, slightly off-script. This time, he didn't want to come across as awkward. "I'll help you, but don't expect it to be simple. Trying our best is probably good enough."
"Really?! Oh, thank you, Ayanokōji-kun!" she clasped her hands together in joy, face lighting up.
He suspected all she'd heard was "I'll help you."
"So, what exactly are we going to do? Even if you say you want to be friends with her, it's not that simple."
"You're probably right," she said, a sheepish laugh escaping as she tapped her own head. "But maybe... we could try making her smile first?"
Horikita wouldn't even give her a minute of her time, and Kushida's new plan was to make her smile? Kiyotaka thought it was stupid, but kept it to himself.
"Make her smile? Do you have an idea how?"
"Well, I thought you could help me think of something, Ayanokōji-kun." She giggled sheepishly and lightly smacked her own head.
"A plan to make her smile, huh?" Kiyotaka muttered.
With his memories, he could have provided a plan that might actually bring Kushida closer to her goals.
But Kiyotaka opted to follow the script, and gave the exact same plan future Kiyotaka gave Kushida in the original timeline: He'd ask Horikita to accompany him to pallet, Kushida makes her friends reserve seats for them, Kushida 'coincidentally' runs into them and start a conversation, and figure things out from there.
It was a sound plan and probably would have worked... if Horikita wasn't so socially stunted.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
The rest of the day passed without incident.
After his conversation with Kushida, Kiyotaka caught up with his friends — he decided it was fine to call them friends now — in the cafeteria and ate lunch with them.
It was routine. Both him and Hirata listened to the girls' gossip, offering their thoughts when prompted.
He did get asked about Horikita, though. A few of the girls said they didn't like her already, but Hirata urged them to hold their judgment for a while. Naturally, they turned to him — the only person Horikita Suzune would actually talk to.
Kiyotaka didn't want to lie. He simply said Horikita was a solitary person, and that if they hadn't been seatmates, she probably wouldn't speak to him either.
Nobody pressed him, they were satisfied enough to know he was just neutral about her.
Thus, Kiyotaka's mind drifted elsewhere.
In the original timeline, he didn't spend much points in his first month. That was because his future self was content with not doing anything. Clearly, that wasn't the case for him now.
So he decided to buy a laptop later on. There were a few things he wanted to do that required one, so he'd decided it was time to make the purchase.
But that would have to wait.
Right now, there was something else he had to deal with: the plan he and Kushida had set up earlier.
As the end-of-class bell rang, he and Kushida exchanged a glance. She gave him a subtle thumbs-up before leaving with her friends.
'This is gonna be troublesome,' he thought.
It wasn't the plan itself. It was the adjustments he'd have to make.
Unlike in the original timeline, he had already made a few female friends. His old excuse — that he had no one else to invite — wouldn't hold this time.
He'd have to play it differently.
"Hey, Horikita. Do you have some free time?" he asked casually.
The girl was already placing her things back in her bag, already preparing to leave.
"I don't have time to waste. I need to get back to the dormitory and prepare for tomorrow," she replied curtly.
"I know I said earlier I wouldn't be inviting you to places but well... I wanted you to go somewhere with me for a little bit."
"What are you after?"
"Do you think just inviting you somewhere means I'm after something?"
"Well, when you invite me so suddenly, I naturally have my doubts. However, if there is a specific matter that you wish to discuss, I wouldn't mind listening."
That was the opening he needed.
"Yeah, there's something I'd like to talk about. I've noticed a few things, you see," he said, watching her reaction.
She didn't leave, so that was a promising sign.
"About what?"
"About the school. It'd help if you could clarify a few things for me."
Horikita seemed to have weighed in her options for a while. "If that's the case, then I would be willing to hear you out. You must be unable to figure it out on your own. So where?"
"Well, you know that café on campus? The one with a ton of girls? Pallet, I think it's called."
"Why choose that place specifically?" She asked.
"I want to try their pancakes. Matsushita said they're good," Kiyotaka replied smoothly.
However, Matsushita never said anything of that sort to him. He just figured Horikita would believe him if he dropped a name.
Of course, there was the possibility she'd ask why didn't he invite Matsushita instead, but he already closed the lid on that one by framing the invitation as him needing her insight about the school.
Horikita believed herself to be the superior person, so she'd easily think the invitation was because Kiyotaka acknowledged her abilities.
"I see. I can't stay there for too long, though. Is that all right?" Horikita asked, now standing up with her bag slung over her shoulder.
"Sure. We'll be quick."
With that, the two of them left the classroom together.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
With the change in how he invited Horikita, Kiyotaka had to improvise as they made their way to Pallet.
To build her interest in what he had to say, Kiyotaka brought up his doubts on whether or not they would be receiving 100,000 points the next month.
He told her he heard his friends say they were just looking forward to May 1 for another point deposit, but he himself doubted it because of a few things that he noticed.
He mentioned the free food option, which he 'tried' earlier. Kiyotaka 'believed' normal teenagers wouldn't force themselves to eat the meal because of how bland it is. A few days a month was probably fine, he 'concluded,' but he saw how a lot of upperclassmen were actually lining up for them.
"I think it's unlikely they're all just trying to save points," Kiyotaka had said. It was a rather basic explanation, but that would be enough for now.
Horikita considered that. "That makes sense. I would advise you to be careful with your spending moving forward."
Then, he asked for her thoughts.
She didn't show any sign of piecing together the S-System yet — but she was clearly starting to suspect that next month's payout might not be so generous.
With that, Kiyotaka had achieved a small side goal. One he'd thought of when making 'changes' to the invitation script.
By offering a thoughtful observation, he'd nudged Horikita's perception of him — just enough to show he wasn't as useless as he might appear.
It also had an unexpected effect. The conversation had drawn her in enough that, for a time, she'd almost believed the invitation had been genuine — that he wanted to discuss school matters. Almost because she remained suspicious. But she was more interested this time.
She actually asked if he had more observations to share once they sat down in Pallet.
He expected that, so he began to talk about the free options they saw in the convenience store on the first day in class. Horikita then linked these observations together.
Kiyotaka pretended he 'finally' understood. So far, so good.
But the moment Kushida appeared at their table, any illusion of a genuine conversation vanished. Things unfolded as they did in his memories.
There were a few minor changes, but overall, the scene played out the same.
Main difference was how Horikita wasn't fully annoyed by him. Probably because he actually told her something useful this time around.
She still lectured Kushida, though.
Then, she left.
With her departure, Kiyotaka talked to Kushida for a while, but followed the script word-for-word this time.
The script still worked because the outcome remained the same. That being Horikita walking out.
"Why are you desperate to be her friend? Kushida, don't you already have more friends than everyone else? There's no reason to focus on Horikita."
"I wanted to be friends with everyone. Not just the people in Class D, but the students from other classes, too. But if I can't become friends with one girl in my class, then that means I'll never achieve my goal..."
"Just think of Horikita as a special case. Your only option is to wait for a real coincidence to come along."
Future Kiyotaka gave good advice, but this Kiyotaka knew his words would fall on deaf ears.
Actually, even the future one knew. Kushida wasn't particularly hard to read for him.
He still said them, though. For the plot.
Eventually, the topic shifted to his performance in swim class yesterday, but that only lasted for a while.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
With his business with Horikita and Kushida done, Kiyotaka turned his attention elsewhere.
Just as he planned during lunch time, he headed straight to Keyaki Mall to buy a laptop. He decided on a second-hand, but still decent laptop. They were cheaper and would still work.
Since he wasn't that familiar with second-hand laptops, Kiyotaka had messaged Sotomura after lunch to ask if he could help him choose one later. He pointed him to a shop and told him to send pictures once he found any that looked good.
At the shop, he did just that—forwarding photos of the laptops and their specs, and asking for Sotomura's thoughts.
As expected, the bespectacled boy had sharp eyes. He pointed out flaws Kiyotaka wouldn't have noticed and quickly steered him toward a better option.
Without that help, Kiyotaka probably would've been scammed. So after completing the purchase, he sent Sotomura 3,000 points as thanks.
Sotomura initially refused, insisting he'd just been helping a friend. But after a bit of back-and-forth, he accepted.
Now, back at the dorm, Kiyotaka unboxed the laptop and set it on his desk.
It was a three-year-old model, but it would do.
He plugged it in, powered it on, and waited through the initial boot sequence. No bloatware. Good. That had been one of the risks Sotomura had warned him about with second-hand laptops.
After a few adjustments—keyboard layout, display brightness—he opened the campus network portal and logged into his account.
From there, it didn't take long to reach the ANHS student forums.
The forum was a trove of information, but only if you knew where and how to look. Popular campus spots, class rumors, even details about certain students— threads on all of it existed if you searched well enough.
That was possible because of how the forum was designed to protect anonymity. It gave students the courage to post or ask questions they did not want traced back to them.
Of course, if a transaction was involved, anonymity ended. After all, you'd need to reveal your information to receive or send points.
Kiyotaka had been quietly active on the forum since the third day of class. He rarely posted. Instead, he spent his time gathering details from existing threads. It was an easy way to get information without having to ask anyone directly.
His future self hadn't done the same. Back then, he hadn't touched the forums until nearly two months in—and only because Class 1-B's tactics had made him curious. But that curiosity didn't last.
Kiyotaka leaned back slightly in his chair as the main page loaded.
Then, he made a post in the "Games" index:
[LOOKING] Best-of-Three Chess Match. 50,000 Wager.
Kiyotaka ended the night 150,000 points richer. Only three people sent him a challenge, but that was fine. He more than tripled his current balance.
To celebrate, he rewatched A New Hope. Sotomura had sent him a working site for streaming movies.
That was a godsend.
--𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙--
During lunch break the next day, Kiyotaka made a casual announcement to his friends.
"I'll treat everyone to lunch today."
Hirata glanced over, eyebrows lifting a little. "Are you sure, Ayanokōji-kun? We've got our own points, you know."
"I won a bet," Kiyotaka replied with a small shrug. "Figured it'd be nice to treat my friends."
"Huh... you can be quite bold," Karuizawa remarked.
"Aren't we friends?" Kiyotaka asked, tilting his head slightly.
Karuizawa blinked. She hadn't expected him to say that.
"Uh... yeah. We are," she said, tossing her hair back. "But still, you don't seem like the type to buy people food."
"Eh? Just accept it, Karuizawa-san!"
Unlike Karuizawa, Satō Maya was more than willing to receive a free meal from Kiyotaka.
"Ah mou... I'm not saying I won't, Satō-san," Karuizawa replied quickly. "That'd be rude. I'm just surprised, that's all."
"Well... I don't have any objections myself. Besides, food is better if it's free," Matsushita remarked.
"Right?" Satō grinned.
Hirata glanced toward Mii-chan and Mori, who were gathering their things nearby. "You two good with that?"
Both girls nodded, smiling softly.
"It wouldn't even be a dent to my points. It'd just be 6000 points," Kiyotaka said.
"Just how much did you win?" Karuizawa asked.
Kiyotaka glanced at her briefly. "Just enough."
"You're asking the wrong question, Karuizawa-san," she said. "You should have asked what was he betting on."
"Chess."
Matsushita blinked.
"Wait, chess?" She looked genuinely surprised. "People gamble on chess?"
"... I did."
Saying that, Kiyotaka realized — belatedly — why only three people took him up on his challenge. He made a mental note to check later what games people usually gambled on.
He should have done that first.
"Something wrong, Ayanokōji-kun?" Matsushita asked, clearly amused. She noticed her words struck him a little.
"No. Just thinking what I should buy for lunch," he replied.
He pushed his thoughts aside. It wasn't like his lack of common sense cost him anything. He just profited less.
End of Chapter
Closing Note: The design for this chapter is to show a few more changes, and hints at Kiyotaka's more proactive actions. They're slow, but they're there. And when the pay-off comes, it'll be massive.