Write—of course she could write. Definitely could. Absolutely could.
But really, who in their right mind keeps a diary?
People write diaries either to show them to others, or because they want others to see them.
If you truly wrote down all the emotions in your heart, no matter how deeply you tried to hide them, someone would eventually notice.
—That is, if it were an ordinary diary.
But what if it was this diary in her hands?
Kushida Kikyo couldn't help but think that.
This was a diary no one else could see, touch, or make public, no matter how hard they tried—a diary she could take out anytime.
Even if she openly flipped through it in class, in others' eyes, that act would be distorted into something else entirely.
So, she could write.
She picked up her pen and poured her emotions onto the pages.
[What the hell is Yamauchi anyway? Why didn't someone like him just die earlier? How does trash like that even get into this school?!]
[Hasebe always has that stupid sour face. He's completely incapable of making friends, yet just because I approached him first, he started calling me by a nickname. What's that supposed to mean? Does he just sit there waiting for people to be nice to him while doing nothing himself?!]
[Horikita's a dumb piece of shit, Chabashira's basically a corpse, and Ayanokouji goes without saying—he can't even be bothered to do something when asked. With that dead expression, no wonder he can only hang out with Yamauchi's bunch!]
Ugly. Twisted. Almost like she was exposing her true nature in front of everyone.
Kushida Kikyo gripped her pen and wrote wildly in her diary.
She could clearly feel others' gazes. She could hear their voices. She knew she was surrounded by "people."
But it didn't matter.
Her expression wouldn't betray her.
What she wrote wouldn't be exposed.
No matter what she did… the diary would obediently cooperate, twisting the version of her in others' eyes into her perfectly "normal" self.
Ahh… even though words couldn't completely vent everything in her heart,
this feeling—like cursing people right in front of them—was far more refreshing than she'd expected.
…And precisely because of that, when the diary suddenly refreshed in an unusual way on April 30th, she felt an extremely bad premonition.
She focused her eyes on the content.
Her premonition came true.
She skipped over the opening crazy rambling. She never understood what that person was writing anyway, and she was already used to those random bouts of nonsense.
The important part was below.
"Lord Yamauchi" was even here???
What the hell is Yamauchi supposed to be? He deserves to be called "Lord"?
She felt that whoever was writing this diary was seriously unhinged.
Kushida Kikyo had never imagined that the "Black Room's Greatest Masterpiece" mentioned several times before would turn out to be Haruki Yamauchi.
"He deserves that?!"
Frowning deeply, she continued reading.
Line by line. Word by word.
Finally, her gaze stopped on the second-to-last paragraph.
"Tomorrow, Class D should be receiving 0 points!"
"Hah?"
Her face twisted into an unbearably ugly expression.
Class D, Class D, Class D…
That was her class!
Why?! How?! How could something like this happen?!
Instinctively, she thought the diary was lying. That it was deceiving her. That it was—
But her brain automatically recalled the diary from nearly a month ago.
Horikita Suzune's bow.
Chabashira Sae's half-smiling face.
"Ugh—"
Her stomach churned violently, and a wave of nausea surged up her throat. Darkness instantly clouded her pretty face.
In that instant, she understood.
They were broke.
Next month, Class D would have no money at all.
Not a single point.
All thanks to Haruki Yamauchi.
No—not just him.
Everyone who had heard about the behavioral exam at the start of the month, yet dismissed the so-called "evaluation," tightened up briefly and then quickly relaxed again, going back to being late, leaving early, and skipping class—
All of them were accomplices.
Day by day, they had dragged the school's evaluation of their class down into the abyss of zero.
And the result was the punishment of having their points wiped out.
Yes. Of course.
How could there be something so convenient as the school giving everyone 100,000 points every month?
What a joke.
Why hadn't she realized this earlier?
Was it because she'd been blinded by having so much money to spend freely?
Was it because hanging out with Class D had lowered her IQ?
Or was it because…
—Because of Chabashira Sae.
She had already taken their money, yet deliberately blurred the most important truth, using the vague word "evaluation" instead.
If she hadn't delivered that fatal blow, then no matter how bad Class D was, the pressure of living expenses would have forced them to restrain themselves and recover at least some points.
"That bitch…"
Grinding her teeth, Kushida spat out the words.
She'd hated that dead-faced woman for a long time.
Always wearing that lifeless expression, whether in class or meetings, like her mother had died.
And she'd buried such a landmine for them here?
Are you kidding me?!
How was she fit to be a homeroom teacher?!
Her fingers clenched around the diary, nearly crumpling the pages, as Kushida took deep breaths to steady herself.
If…
No. There was no "if."
Everything over the past month pointed to this outcome.
Tomorrow, they would receive the notice of zero points.
It couldn't be changed.
She couldn't go back and fix it.
All she could do was accept it and think about what to do next.
Ahh, this was so annoying.
She was running out of money.
Her daily expenses weren't that high. Even adding the 5,000 she'd spent on information, she still had plenty left.
But maintaining relationships cost money.
Shopping, hanging out, eating together—all of it added up, especially for someone as socially active as her.
And near the end of the month, many of the big-spending girls in Class D were already nearly broke.
They were counting on next month's 100,000 points to save them.
And Kushida was counting on that money so they could pay back what they'd borrowed from her.
If she hadn't believed they'd have money next month, how could she have lent it out?
"Reading completed. Reading points +1."
No matter how turbulent her emotions were, the cold voice still rang out on time.
"Total accumulated reading points: 31. 'Message' function unlocked."
"Current free message count: 1."
"Detected pending message. Uploading now."
This time, however, the voice said something extra.
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