Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V4.5: Chapter 5 - The Gift

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV

Although most Japanese people aren't typically mindful of religion, Christianity has influenced them strongly through events such as Christmas and birthday celebrations. You could say that was a result of people's faith, but also that it came from clever marketing luring them in. The trend of celebrating Halloween could be chalked up to the same influence.

This particular story began one week before the elevator incident.

I had received a private message from Kushida Kikyou, Class D's angel explaining that Inogashira Kokoro's birthday would be soon, the 24th of the month to be precise. Apparently, she wanted me to accompany her to buy a gift for Inogashira.

Inogashira was a somewhat quiet and plain girl who didn't have many friends from our class. I had talked with her a few times on the cruise ship, and she had been one of Karuizawa's and Matsushita's roommates.

I had never bought someone a birthday present nor tried to and I was somewhat curious, so I accepted Kushida's invitation.

I wasn't exactly low on points since I still had over 20 thousand private points left, so that was good. We had been allotted 10,400 private points at the start of August which compared to the 100,000 of the first day were quite low but enough to get by for the month if you were smart. Nevertheless, thanks to our results on the special exams we should receive over 40 thousand private points on September 1st. By the time, the elevator incident happened, we had already received those points.

The day after Kushida's message, we met at the entrance of Keyaki Mall.

As I felt the boiling heat on my skin, I wiped sweat off my forehead.

The good thing is that Kushida arrived soon after me, so I didn't wait for long.

"Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun!"

"Good morning."

"Thank you for coming. To tell you the truth I didn't expect you to accept so easily."

"Well, I thought I could help you, even if I don't know how I'll be of any help."

"Don't say that Ayanokouji-kun!" she reprimanded. "Your advice is very much appreciated."

"Hmm. Shall we enter then?"

She nodded and we finally entered the air conditioned Keyaki Mall. We quickly entered a store that girls frequented. The clerk was an older beauty, and the interior was completely pink. Frivolous object like stuffed animals and cell phone accessories lined out of the shelves. It felt as though the shop was trying to squeeze private points out of the students. I had to admit I was a bit embarrassed to enter such a place with someone like Kushida.

As we walked around the store I could only think of buying things like a bouquet of roses, a ring or a necklace, which I think were hardly things you would offer as birthday gifts.

I did propose things like a phone case or a screen protector while circling the store, but Kushida turned down said options arguing that Inogashira already had those. Instead, Kushida was more inclined to buy a stuffed bear since apparently, Inogashira liked white bear series. I found such a gift quite impractical since the only thing it did was clutter the room so there was no real purpose to offering something like that. But if Inogashira liked it then I guess it was fine.

"By the way, Kushida. Why didn't you come with your friends?"

"Hehe, that was the original idea but since Shinohara-san already had plans for today we decided to postpone it for tomorrow."