Nino shot Shirase an irritated glare. "I'm not that petty, okay? Though I'm definitely not convinced either. My cooking's amazing—I might not lose to her."
Itsuki immediately burst out laughing. "We weren't even talking about cooking, and you volunteered that on your own. Nino, that's pure guilty conscience."
"I am not! Itsuki, shut up already—I can't even stand your face right now!"
"Raising your voice is another sign of guilt. And hey, don't give me that scary look—that line was Miku's, not mine."
"You and Miku are both little traitors!"
Shirase just smiled, watching them bicker, fingers unconsciously tightening around the stack of files he held.
He really wanted to win.
Someone always ends up the victor—so why not him?
"Right—Itsuki told us you talked to her in home ec yesterday about tutoring?" Nino said suddenly as they turned a corner.
Shirase glanced at Itsuki, who looked visibly guilty. "So she really did report on me, huh?"
"I—I wasn't reporting anything! It was just sister talk…" Itsuki's cheeks flushed pink, her denial weak at best.
There's an old saying—if you've eaten someone's food, your mouth softens; if you've taken their gift, your hands soften. Itsuki had done both.
If it were just the two of them, she might still tease or complain. But with others around, she wouldn't. She wasn't the type to take someone's kindness and act ungrateful.
"You're really willing to tutor us?" Nino asked, her expression wavering. "To be honest, none of us want a tutor right now."
"But that's only when it's someone else tutoring you, right?" Shirase said with quiet confidence.
Nino hesitated, then sighed. "That's true. If it's you… at least this little traitor Itsuki won't object."
"I told you I'm not a traitor! Why do you always call me that?" Itsuki whined, fidgeting. She knew she didn't have much of a defense—she had accepted a lot from him.
Shirase took in Nino's conflicted look and smiled. "I get it. How about this: I don't have practice Saturday morning. Let's just do a trial run. If you still hate it, we'll drop it. Sound fair?"
Nino peeked at him, flustered. "You're impossible… You know I don't want to turn you down…" Her voice trailed off until it was barely audible.
Itsuki quickly jumped in. "If you're really doing a trial, are you sure you can handle Miku?"
"Oh, true," Nino agreed. "You barely talk to Miku. She likes your sweets, but she's not as easy as this idiot Itsuki."
"Could you stop calling me an idiot?"
"Fine—little traitor."
"Ugh, Nino, you bully!"
Seeing the next argument forming, Shirase cut in fast. "Alright, that's enough. As for the others, I'll improvise when the time comes."
Both sisters froze. "You're that confident? Forget not being close to Miku—and don't even start with airhead Yotsuba—what about Ichika? She's sharp and great at verbal tug-of-war. Think you can handle her?"
Shirase smirked. "When it comes to going head-to-head, I always crank it to max. And if it's a push-and-pull, I'm not giving her the chance to pull."
Nino raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly are you going to do that?"
"Haven't figured that part out yet," Shirase admitted without hesitation.
Nino's face went blank, as if she'd just found a bug in her dessert. In the end, she sighed. "Whatever. I'm too lazy to micromanage you. Figure it out yourself."
Shirase didn't mind—if Nino said that, it just meant she'd probably help him out later.
He turned to Itsuki.
She startled, fingers twisting together, cheeks warm. "D-Don't look at me like that. I'm not going to oppose you anyway…"
As soon as she said it, she frowned at herself. How had she let herself get swayed by food this easily?
Shirase smiled, feeling at ease.
As for Nino's warning about Ichika being "hard to handle"? He wasn't worried. Thanks to the system's antics, he'd already given Ichika a pair of high heels.
Even when she later messaged, insisting on paying him back, Shirase refused.
Since the heels were a gift, they had to pull their weight—no letting them go to waste.
When they reached the intersection, the three split up. Shirase didn't insist on walking them home—it was still early, and the streets were safe.
Back home, Kojima Kana wasn't around. Instead, a sticky note sat on the table: she'd gotten a last-minute call from Hiratsuka Shizuka and wouldn't be home for dinner.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, huh?" Shirase murmured. "What's she want with Kana-nee?"
He frowned slightly. The two didn't really overlap much. Even last time, when Hiratsuka had mentioned Kana, she'd only said she was "sincere" and "good friend material."
"If she just wants to get closer to Kana-nee, that's… efficient to the point of scary."
Shrugging it off, he tossed the note aside and got ready for tonight's [Free Hosting] session.
He'd skipped dinner on purpose. After laying out his math workbooks neatly, he opened his notebook full of problem-solving notes.
Once everything was in place, he activated hosting mode.
Timer: 120 minutes.
[Welcome, Host, to Free Hosting.]
[Detected: large stack of math workbooks in front of Host.]
[System processing…]
[Host, are you trying to make things hard for the system?]
Shirase burst out laughing. "I just want to do some problems. You got an issue with that?"
[Confirmed: Host is making things hard for the system.]
The system took over, picked up a fountain pen, and squared off against the endless sea of equations.
Moments later, the pen was tossed aside.
[The system may not be human, but Host—you're truly a monster.]
Once again, the system had been defeated by mathematics.
And not just one problem—an entire ocean of them.
Just as Shirase had expected, it drowned.
---
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