Before returning to my room for a good night's rest, I wanted to take advantage of the outdoor school's facilities some more, so I went to take a dip in the hot springs to soothe my aching muscles.

At this hour of the night, most people would be either asleep or winding down for bed, so I practically had the entire place to myself. Now that the special exam was over and I was completely alone, I could finally relax in peace.

I felt the stiffness of my shoulders drop as I let myself sink into the milky water, watching the hot steam evaporate before my eyes and cling onto my skin. I rested my head against a towel I put on a rock and closed my eyes.

This was more or less perfect. The only thing that could improve it is if...

Her gentle face, framed by black bangs, came into my view.

As I had those thoughts, my consciousness began drifting away. Almost paradoxically, my body felt light and heavy all at once, like I was about to slip into sleep at any second.

...huh?

...what was I thinking about earlier?

I don't remember anymore...

I opened my bleary eyes. The water surrounding me rippled. The light of the stars, the moon, and the ambient hot spring lanterns were the only things keeping me semi-awake right now.

"...I should probably get out before I really do pass out of here."

I muttered that to myself, forcing myself to sit up. As I did, the door to the hot springs opened.

"Oh come on, you've gotta be kidding me."

The person at the door clicked his tongue, annoyed to see me inside. I rubbed my eyes, swiping my blonde bangs out of the way to see who it was.

"...Machida-san?"

Standing at the doorway of the hot springs was Machida, naked except for the towel draped over his shoulder. Talk about a coincidence... he must've had the same idea as me.

"The hell do you want?"

He grumbled, turning around and getting ready to leave.

"...what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I came to have a nice relaxing soak in peace before going home tomorrow. But it looks like that plan has been nixed in the bud because of you."

"There's no one else but me here though. And you know that I'm a quiet person. I won't bother you at all."

"It's not about that, idiot. I don't want my peaceful time interrupted by having some loser pest get in the line of my eyesight."

"So if I left, you'd want to use the facilities?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, then here's a proposal for you."

I sat up in the hot springs.

"If you tell me what deal you made with Shimada-san in this special exam, I'll get out of here."

"So you know about it, huh?"

Machida sighed, shrugging.

"Alright, whatever. The deal's void now anyways since that psycho retired from the special exam. Before I tell you though, get out."

"Alright."

I put a towel around my waist and got out of the hot springs. As I did, Machida got into the water and leaned back against the rocks, putting his arms up with a blissful face.

"Ah... this is the life I deserve."

"So, what was the deal you two made?"

Machida glanced at me before closing both his eyes.

"I would join Ryouta's group and stir up trouble up for them from the inside, before framing it on you to make them want to trade you out during the transfer window. In exchange, Shimada would cough up a nice 100,000 private points for me."

It seems from the start, Shimada didn't fully trust me. When we made our deal, I told him that I could handle betraying the team myself, but it seems he hired Machida as a failsafe to ensure this would happen.

"So, you going alone and ignoring your faction's pleas to team up were part of your plan to join Ryouta-san's group?"

"Yeah. Even if his aim was to have all the class reps come together, it'd look suspicious to the others if I joined their group without putting up some form of resistance, so I isolated myself from Koishi and the others and made it look like I had no other choice but to join them."

That explains a lot of his behaviour from the first day. It seems I had made the right call by being the one who dragged him into Ryouta's group.

"My hopes of receiving that money is in the bin now though, since I practically did jack all. You were already sabotaging yourself, so all I did was cause a huge fuss about the ordeal."

Even if Machida did his job correctly, I have a funny feeling Shimada wouldn't pay him anyways. I've seen how much money was in his account before, and loaded on it was an underwhelming 0 private points. Shimada was somehow more broke than Mitsuba.

"Wouldn't forwarding the contract of the deal to the school make them intervene and force Shimada-san to pay you? It's not like you can prove you didn't do any work."

"Hah. If I could do that, I wouldn't be telling you this, would I? If I escalated the matter and showed both parties consented to the transaction, sure, Shimada would have to cough up the money. But that guy also thought about how to avoid getting into a contact in the first place."

Machida sighed, scratching the back of his ass.

"What do you mean?"

"You really are thick in the head. There's nothing in writing to confirm we made the deal."

...seriously?

I didn't want to voice my disappointment, but that was a huge blunder to make, especially for someone as business savvy as Machida.

"When Shimada approached me with the deal, he did it after we arrived at the outdoors school and the staff confiscated our devices. As such, I was unable to get his signature of validation in the moment. If he called me on the app while we were still on the bus though, this would've been a different story."

It seems Shimada didn't want to risk Machida writing a digital contract on his phone or recording their call on the bus. If he could do either of those things, it would've been definite proof that Shimada had to pay him 100k Pr.

Considering he contacted Machida under those circumstances, it seems pretty obvious in hindsight that Shimada had no intentions of properly compensating him in the first place, hence why he set things up like this.

"And you still accepted under those conditions?"

"Even if it was only a verbal agreement, it was easy money at the end of the day. Screwing over Ryouta's group was something I intended to do from the start, whether it be outside or inside, so might as well try to squeeze some extra value out of it. Though, I changed gears midway through the special exam after seeing that the group had a real chance of winning despite all the setbacks."

In the end, all Machida cared about was profit. Even though A Class, C Class, and E Class would gain the most out of Ryouta's group winning, he still saw the smaller bonus to B Class as beneficial enough to cooperate.

"And that's everything I have to say on the matter. Are you satisfied now?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

"Whatever you say. Now get the hell out of here, your voice is more annoying than the buzzing of the cicadas. Do you know just how much I had to talk to drown out the nauseating sounds your whiny throat makes?"

"...my apologies."

Was my voice really that annoying to him...?

After drying off my body with a towel and changing into my pyjamas, I left the hot springs. Standing just around the corner of the exit however, was the last person I was expecting to see on the boy's side.

It was a lone girl with long black hair, crossing her arms like she was waiting for someone.

And more importantly... I knew who she was.

Well, I can't say this wasn't expected... but it was a surprisingly bold approach coming from her. It made me wonder if Machida saw her when he entered the bath. If he did, as long as she didn't say anything to him, I think things will be fine.

Either way, I had to get past her if I wanted to return to my room, so it was an inevitability that we'd have to talk to each other. I stepped forward, coming into her line of sight.

And like a moth drawn to flame, she jumped out in front of me.

"Takanori-san."

She tilted her head up, staring at me with a piercing gaze, while her hands were behind her back like she was hiding something.

"...what are you doing here?"

It was none other than Oshita Saori, the girl who was brought to the verge of death by Nakajima.

I actually hadn't seen or spoken to her personally since that incident, so it was relieving to see that she looked a lot better than before. Judging by the lack of swelling on her face, it seems her recovery is going well.

"Here."

Oshita brought her hands in front of her, revealing what she was hiding.

It was a bottle of fruit milk.

"I know it's not much, but this is for you. I heard from Rinbayashi-san about what happened... so thank you for saving my life back then, Takanori-san. I owe you one."

"No problem, it wasn't that big a deal. Thank you for this as well."

I wasn't expecting to be gifted anything from her over it, but it was the perfect drink to have after soaking in the hot springs.

I popped open the cap and began drinking the cold beverage, feeling my scalding heat in body drop to a warm, relaxing temperature.

"...I forgot how good milk could taste."

As I mumbled that to myself, I thought I could see a small smile appear on Oshita's face. However, as I tried to confirm it, her expression turned stone cold again.

"Well, it was always your drink of choice back then, so I thought you'd enjoy it."

Ironically, it was the main reason why I stopped drinking milk despite loving it so much.

Back then, I drank it to get me through <that>, since it reminded me of mom, as milk was her favourite drink.

But now, because I drank it so much during <that>, whenever I do drink it, it's taste is imbued with the dark feelings I accrued from back then.

At the same time, it provided both nostalgia and trauma.

A strange, bittersweet duality.

I couldn't find comfort in it anymore, so I stopped drinking it entirely.

...maybe I can start again, bit by bit.

"By the way, Takanori-san..."

"...what's up?"

"Over the summer holiday... I'm going to return to the Underworld and find out what I can about Nakajima-san. And, if the chance arises... I'm also going to kill him too."

I put down the bottle of fruit milk and nodded.

"I see."

"So, I was just wondering... would you accompany me in this?"

Before I could answer, Oshita's eyes tore away from my face, and she stepped back.

"Sorry... I understand. My bad for asking."

It seems I didn't even need to use words to communicate just how revolted I was at even the thought of going back there.

"...it's getting late, so I think we should call it here."

"Yeah... I would like to get some sleep as well."

I finished the rest of the fruit milk and threw away the bottle.

"See you next semester, Oshita-san."

"...see you later, Takanori-san."

I returned to my room and fell asleep.