Boom!
"...What did you tell her?"
"Hm? I didn't say anything, though?"
"...Is that so?"
"Mn!" Kasuka smiled.
It was still quite early in the morning, barely any time had passed since the sun rose.
And right now, everyone was gathered together.
Atsuko, Misaki, Kasuka, and even Hiyori!
It took quite a bit before she's finally able to face Kasuka head on, but she finally succeeded in overcoming that trauma.
Of course, overcoming that doesn't mean anything else has changed.
"A-ah...? Did I j-just hear a gr-grenade...?!"
Currently, they're around a couple dozen meters away from the location of Azusa's trial.
Since it's been a while since Azusa entered the building, following after Saori, they thought that it would be safe enough to close the distance now.
And it was true, most of the actions were safely contained inside the building.
"Do you think Azusa succeeded?" Atsuko directed the question towards Misaki.
"...Probably. Well, even if she didn't, Leader would make it seem like she did."
"Heh, that's true too."
After all, that's just how Saori's characters is.
Although Kasuka hadn't really dived in deep into the Arius District's lore, at the very least, she knew one thing.
Saori's love for her squad can't be compared with anything.
Take just last week for example.
She had willingly starved herself just so Kasuka wouldn't face any more punishment. Most other students wouldn't even bat an eye at another's suffering.
Perhaps, only Saori would willingly go through such thing.
Truly an action benefiting of her status as the Leader of the Arius Squad.
Kasuka couldn't help but smile at the thought of milking her for all that she's worth.
"...hehe."
"Did something happen?" Atsuko noticed Kasuka's weird behavior.
"Mm? Nope~ I simply thought of something funny just now, wanna hear?"
"Really? I'm interested."
"Alrighty, it'll be a short one since it sounded like they're already finished with their stuff." Kasuka glanced at the now silent building. Most probably, Azusa was carrying down Saori towards the first floor.
There's probably around a couple of minutes before she arrived?
Kasuka turned her head around again and began talking to Atsuko, but not without noticing the way Misaki's and Hiyori's ears also perked up in curiosity.
'...Right, there's rarely anything in this place that could be called entertainment, isn't there?'
'Could this be an opportunity!?'
'...No. It's still too early. Logically speaking, wouldn't getting our relationship closer affects the amount of points given out?'
'After all, the closer you are to someone, the more easily that person could affect your emotions!'
'Ah! I'm a genius!'
At first, Kasuka had thought that this could've been an opportunity, but then she realized, it was an even bigger opportunity!
She'd hit the jack pot!
"What do you call a weak source of light?"
Atsuko thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a plausible answer.
"...A weak source of light... Ugh, I'm not sure... How can a source of light be weak if it's always emitting light?"
"Perhaps there might be way~ So? What do you think? Got an answer for me?"
"Unfortunately, no. I couldn't come up with anything."
Hearing this, Kasuka smiled brightly.
"I'll tell you the answer one day~ Just keep that question at the back of your mind and wonder what it meant occasionally, k?"
Although nobody said anything, Kasuka could somewhat tell that all three of them looked disappointed at her answer.
Well, she was disappointed too!
'No, I need to stay focused! If I cash out right now, I wouldn't get much! Only by foreshadowing stuff like these would I be able to milk them dry!'
If she were to tell them the answer immediately, she'd be missing out on suspense points!
Hm? What is a suspense point, you ask?
Haven't you read anything before?
Foreshadowing! Foreshadowing!
If there's no foreshadowing in the storyline, how could there be an argument that there even is a story in the first place!?
The more you let someone think about something, the greater the payout would be when they finally figured out the answer at important moments!
Let's take... Hm... Ah, let's take Han Sooyoung.
Of course, I wouldn't wanna spoil such peak story for anything that it is worth, but just know that the build up that led to her discovering... Dokja's significance to the 'story' was absolutely immaculate.
'...Speaking of which, that guy is quite the inspiration!'
Perhaps there's no other character out there in this world who had stabbed their own companions' heart as much as he did!
'My idol!'
Anyway, yeah. That's that. Perhaps you understand it now?
Hopefully you did, because I am not repeating that.
Step Step
Footsteps echoed from the door, slowly, a white figure appeared. The girl seemed to be carrying someone else who had already fallen unconscious.
"Saori!"
A concerned Atsuko ran towards the two figure, surprised at the sight of the most mature out of all of them knocked out cold.
"...Wow, you actually did it." Even Misaki couldn't keep her composure in check. After all, the person they have been relying on too for so long... had fallen under the hand of a newbie!
Azusa had successfully taken down their Leader!
Azusa laid Saori down on a mat prepared by the others, one that should've been hers.
But as of today, it belongs to Saori, because it wasn't Azusa that had lost the battle today.
Atsuko examined Saori's body, and she took note of the torn clothes at the back.
'This... was it caused by an explosion?'
But as she think about it more and more, she realized.
Saori never used a grenade.
Slowly, her gaze turned to Azusa, the girl who was also battered up, but is in a much better condition when compared to their Leader.
"...Crazy." A word escaped Misaki's mouth, she still find it unbelievable, the fact that their Leader had actually lost the battle against an inexperienced rookie.
"L-leader died! Nooooooooo-"
Donk
"Relax, Hiyori. She simply passed out. Don't exaggerate her condition."
"A-ah, really? Thank goodness..."
"Hm."
'As per usual, Misaki comforted the crying Hiyori like the responsible big sis she is...'
"...?" Suddenly, it felt like a cold gaze landed on her body. Kasuka noticed that Misaki had been looking at her.
'...I didn't say that out loud, did I?'
A few more seconds passed, then Misaki turned her gaze and began to treat their Leader.
'Phew... I thought I had for real said that out loud... it's like she read my mind or something. Damn, a student's intuition is scary.'