After spending the afternoon with Rukia, Mizuki came to a startling realization:
The gap between people could be even greater than the gap between a person and a dog.
They all walked the same hallways, sat in the same classrooms, wore the same uniforms—but their lives? Completely different stories.
As if reading her thoughts, Rukia suddenly asked, "Hey, when we were talking earlier—about confessions—you went quiet all of a sudden. Were you thinking of someone? Do you like a boy?"
Mizuki's face turned crimson. She stammered, unable to form a sentence.
Rukia smirked knowingly. "Alright, alright, forget I asked. Let's eat."
She clearly saw through everything.
That night, Mizuki couldn't wait to tell Takumi about her day.
It wasn't just the drama or the lunch—she just needed an excuse to talk to him. Something to make the call feel necessary. Because otherwise, how could she justify calling just to say she missed him?
Snuggled in bed in a white nightgown, Mizuki leaned against the headboard with the warm glow of the desk lamp above. She clutched her mom's phone and began the video call.
"Takumi," she said excitedly, "today I helped a classmate—her name's Rukia. She's super pretty, and so many boys are into her. We ended up eating together!"
She wanted to tell him everything. But gossiping about classmates didn't feel right. So she picked carefully, leaving out most of the juicy details.
Takumi, on the other end, was confused. "That's it? Keep going."
Mizuki twirled her ponytail nervously. "That's all. Really."
"..."
"..."
"So… what about you?" she asked, quickly switching topics. "Still walking to and from school alone?"
"Usually, yeah," Takumi replied. "But not always."
Her ears perked up. "Not always? Wait—do you mean… girls?"
"Yeah. Female."
Her heart sank. Mizuki's expression twisted instantly—eyes red, nose sour. Her mind spun into overdrive: A girl who walked home with him, maybe shared snacks, trained in taekwondo with him on weekends… maybe even hugged him.
But then—
"The neighbor's little female dog. They're away, so she keeps following me around."
Silence.
Then Mizuki burst into laughter, clutching her chest. "So it's a puppy?!"
Takumi's voice stayed calm. "Mhm. Besides the puppy, it's just my parents."
Mizuki sighed in relief. Every time she talked to Takumi, it was like bouncing between heaven and hell.
"I'll walk with you when I come back," she murmured. Then, remembering something, "Oh—Takumi, I want to ask you something."
She thought back to Rukia's earlier question and felt the same itch of curiosity.
"Do you… has anyone confessed to you in the past year or two?"
Takumi was blunt. "Your questions get weirder."
"Just answer!"
"Yeah. A few."
Mizuki's breath caught. She'd expected that answer, but hearing it still made her nervous. "Really? How many?"
"Not many. You know I hate chatting with girls. I find them annoying. I'm not interested."
Her heart squeezed. But I'm a girl too, she thought. Do you find me annoying?
…She didn't dare say it aloud.
She wound a lock of hair around her finger, checking the split ends while silence settled between them.
Then Takumi said, "We've talked enough today. Anything else? I'm about to hang up."
"No! Don't hang up yet!" Mizuki scrambled. "Let's chat a little longer… Oh! The chicken cutlet rice I had today was so good!"
"That so? Bring me one next time."
"Okay!"
"Yeah right," he said dryly. "Didn't you say your cafeteria changes menus every day? No guarantee it'll be there again. Besides, it's just chicken cutlet rice."
Mizuki stuck out her tongue playfully—secretly delighted by his scolding.
That night, Takumi also shared a bit about his daily routine. But there was something he didn't mention.
Because the person involved wasn't someone Mizuki knew, and he himself hadn't figured out what it all meant yet.
The next morning, Takumi packed up for school. He checked the panel out of habit.
It had been two years, and he was close to breaking through the Level 30 bottleneck again. But progress slowed at higher levels.
Daily System Panel— Weather: Partly cloudy, possible rain— Status: Cultivation mode— Current Spiritual Energy: 28—Attributes:Strength: 8Energy: 9Stamina: 13Charm: 11
Strength Evaluation: Invincible in the starting village
"Takumi, it's time to go to school. The weather's bad today—do you need to bring an umbrella?" Aizen asked as he slipped on his leather shoes.
Takumi walked to the door and opened it. "I've got one at school, no need to bring it."
His father drove him to elementary school.
When Takumi entered the classroom, his eyes immediately went to the empty seat by the door.
It was Rias's desk. They were still in the same class.
She hadn't arrived yet.
The classroom, noisy as always in the morning, suddenly quieted when Rias walked in, her pigtails swaying as she stepped through the doorway.
A few students fell silent the moment they saw her.
Once a fierce and confident presence in the class, Rias now looked like she'd lost half her soul. Her eyes scanned the classroom, landing on the disgusted expressions of her classmates.
She quietly returned to her seat.
She was no longer a discipline committee member—dismissed just two days ago after a bizarre incident shook the class.
It had started when the class monitor, who was always honest and had never broken the rules, brought a mobile phone to school. It went missing that very same day.
The next day, during a small class fundraiser, half the collected money vanished after the vice monitor gathered it.
The teacher, furious, demanded that whoever had taken it return it immediately. At the time, Rias had taken charge of the investigation, checking everyone's schoolbags, insisting on finding the culprit.
But the stolen items were found—right in her own bag.
Not only the missing money, but the phone too—tucked away deep in the back of her desk.
Panic washed over Rias's face as she looked around at everyone's shocked expressions. She stammered, "I didn't steal it! I'm a discipline committee member—how could I steal from the class? I didn't even touch that phone!"
The class wavered in disbelief, until her deskmate, Yukino, suddenly stood up and said, "Rias took the money. I saw her when I came back to the classroom at noon."
Rias turned to Yukino in stunned disbelief, her eyes wide and trembling.
The classroom erupted—whispers, judgments, stares. Everything changed in an instant.
The teacher immediately removed Rias from her position and informed her parents.
[Miss Rias has been proven to have stolen silver and a sword. You've had some dealings with her and noticed odd behavior, but this situation is complicated. Whether to help or not help her—each path leads somewhere very different.]