Chapter 17: Sakura Airi's Brainstorming
The early morning sunlight filtered through the clean glass windows, spilling into the classroom and slicing the neatly arranged desks into patches of light and shadow.
As usual, Katsuragi Keima held his handheld console in his right hand. His left index finger danced across the buttons at a speed nearly imperceptible to the naked eye. His eyes were glued to the screen, yet his footsteps accurately avoided every obstacle. Like a person equipped with an automatic navigation system, he walked in a straight line from the classroom door to his seat.
"What was that guy's name again? Katsuragi Keima?"
"The teacher really doesn't seem to care about anything, but he's literally playing games every waking second! I'll never forget his self-introduction as long as I live. To think a shut-in like that actually exists in this school."
"But why are his grades so good? It's so unfair!"
A few boys stole glances at Keima, whispering among themselves. The murmurs buzzed like gnats.
Through his peripheral vision, Keima noticed the boys scanning him with complex expressions—a mixture of curiosity, confusion, and a faint, trace amount of jealousy.
He pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold glint.
It doesn't matter, he thought silently.
In the real world, the evaluations of others were like irrelevant NPC dialogue in a game; skipping them wouldn't affect the main quest.
He slid his chair back and sat down with practiced ease, his movements fluid without a single pause. At that exact moment, the beautiful girl on the handheld screen wore an expression as if she were about to burst into tears. A dialogue box popped up with options:
[A. Embrace her gently] [B. Speak the cold truth]
Keima's index finger hovered for half a second before accurately pressing the A button. Pink special effects immediately blossomed on the screen, and a prompt for "Affection +15" floated above the girl's head.
"Phew..."
He let out a nearly inaudible breath, the corners of his mouth curling upward slightly.
'This is what meaningful feedback looks like. Reality? Hmph.'
Beside him, Sakura Airi sat in a state of near-frozen rigidity. Even for her, it was impossible not to be drawn to the eccentric Katsuragi Keima.
Currently, her peripheral vision was inching cautiously to the right—past her open notebook, skimming the edge of her pencil case, and finally settling on Keima's jumping fingers and the glowing screen.
'He presses them so fast...'
Sakura marveled silently. She often found herself fumbling just playing simple mobile games. And... he really didn't seem to care at all what others thought of him.
Sakura Airi had never met anyone like Katsuragi Keima. Someone who could disregard the gaze of others and go his own way...
This realization made Sakura think of her own past. She remembered walking with her head down forever because she was afraid of being watched; she remembered her face turning bright red at a convenience store just because the clerk asked, "Do you need a bag?"; she remembered the times in middle school when she was chosen by a teacher to answer a question but could only stutter, eventually becoming the target of her classmates' secret mockery.
'If only I could be like him...'
Even a single second of eye contact would fill Sakura Airi with terror. It was extreme social anxiety.
"Good morning, Sakura-san."
Katsuragi Keima's voice suddenly rang out. Sakura jolted like a startled rabbit. She turned her head in a panic and met Keima's profile—he was still staring at the screen, his fingers never stopping, as if the greeting just now had been her hallucination.
"S-Sorry!"
She apologized almost as a reflex, the tips of her ears instantly burning. "G-Good morning..."
Sakura Airi quickly averted her gaze again. She subconsciously hunched her shoulders, her hands gripping her skirt so tightly her nails nearly dug into her palms. She hadn't expected her gaze to be noticed by Keima at all.
'What should I do... how should I answer... will I seem rude like this...'
While Sakura was caught in an internal spiral of indecision, Keima spoke again:
"Did you pick out a camera the other day?"
"N-No..."
Sakura's voice was so small it was almost inaudible.
Her reason for picking a camera that day wasn't just a hobby for photography, but because of her other identity—an internet idol and gravure model active under the stage name "Shizuku," who boasted high popularity online.
Sakura Airi loved taking selfies and would post photos she was satisfied with on her blog. Because all electronic devices were confiscated upon entering the school, she couldn't bring her camera in. Upon learning that any product could be purchased with points at the school, she was desperate to buy a new one.
In the digital section that day, she had actually taken a liking to a retro red camera—compact, portable, with parameters suitable for portraits, and a very cute color.
But when the clerk smiled and walked over to ask, "Do you need help?", that familiar feeling of suffocation seized her. The clerk's eyes... Sakura couldn't quite explain it, but she felt the gaze lingered on her for too long, and the smile made her inexplicably uneasy.
She had practically fled, failing to ask even the questions she had prepared. Interacting with strangers, even just speaking, was incredibly difficult for her due to her extreme social phobia.
On the internet, "Shizuku" appeared to be a sunny, generous girl, radiating youthful energy with every smile and gesture. In reality, Sakura Airi was the complete opposite. She was afraid of looking into others' eyes, afraid of living in crowded places, and hated drawing attention to herself. She didn't even know how she would survive these three years of high school, feeling utterly lost about the future.
"Is it because you don't know which model to choose?"
Keima's words pulled Sakura's thoughts back to reality.
"I..."
"Thanks to a photography-loving friend of mine, I have a certain level of knowledge regarding cameras."
Keima continued playing his game, his gaze never turning toward Sakura. This actually allowed her to feel a slight sense of relief.
"Do you prefer shooting portraits or landscapes?"
"Portraits..." Sakura murmured.
Actually, she wanted to say "selfies," but those words were stuck in her throat and wouldn't come out. The "Shizuku" on the internet could show a brilliant smile to the lens, but the Sakura Airi in reality needed courage just to state her hobby.
"Then I know which kind would suit you," Keima said. "I happen to be going to the digital section today anyway. Want to go together?"
"Katsuragi-kun... is going there again?" Sakura was a bit confused. She remembered that he had bought a mountain of game discs the day before yesterday.
"I plan to buy another game console."
"A-Another one?"
"That's right. After all, if I only have one, the efficiency of clearing games is far too low."
These words left Sakura even more bewildered.
She subconsciously turned her head to look at him, but the moment she saw his profile, she quickly turned away again, her breathing becoming slightly erratic.