The White Room Dropout

Chapter 2.5: From the Shadows

After the entrance ceremony, I decided to wander around the campus and explore. I was still thinking about my conversation with Kaguya Shinomiya from earlier.

She wanted to know why I was here, and I told her a version of the truth.

I have no intention of making her my enemy here. Especially given that her being my enemy would be a pointless endeavor.

Nobody from the White Room can beat me. That much is certain.

I was walking around and ended up at the convenience store and decided to go inside. I was looking around and saw my seatmate shopping as well. She was the one reading Crime in Punishment before class. It's a fascinating book that debated whether killing someone can be justified, if it done for the sake of justice. It was one of the many books I read during my childhood.

I decided to try and ask for her name. After we got off the bus, she confronted me about why I didn't give up my seat. After that when we happened to sit next to each other in class I planned to ask for her name, but when Kaguya was shot down, I decided to try later.

Now seemed like a better time to try and make my first friend, hopefully I have better luck than Kaguya Shinomiya.

"Uh Hello. My name is Ayanokouji. I'm in the same class as you. It's nice to meet you."

"I can't believe you just did a self-introduction like that." She responded.

"Since this is the third time we have met and we do sit next to each other, I thought I proper introduction was in order. Would you introduce yourself."

"Do you mind if I refuse?"

"I mean I guess you can, but I'll have to call you "hey you" for the next three years if I don't know your name."

"Suzune Horikita."

"Nice to meet you, Horikita."

I think that exchange went well.

I continued to look around and noticed a table with items marked free.

"Strange" I thought out loud.

"This school is too indulging." Horikita commented. "It not only gives us 100,000 points a month to spend as we wish, but also still provides free items to students who manage to burn through all their points in a month."

I disagreed with her assessment. If I was correct, we wouldn't get 100,000 points each month, next month we may not get any. She seemed intelligent enough, so I decided to test her a little bit.

"Do you really think the school would just be this lenient? What would they gain by giving us so many points?

"Isn't it obvious?" Her response piqued my curiosity.

"It's to separate those who don't have any self-control from the rest of us. If some students get into bad spending habits, it could cause them problems down the line."

While I agreed with her line of thinking in a general sense, she had failed to consider any broader implications of my words. Oh well.

"Yeah, that makes sense. That must be why."

"I told you it was obvious." She said with a slight smirk.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to finish my shopping on my own."

I didn't want to annoy Horikita any further, so I decided to leave her be. As she walked away a heard a commotion from the register.

"Just hold on a sec, I'm looking for it now."

"Can you hurry up, there's a line waiting?"

"If any of them have a complaint they can take it up with me."