Chapter 87: Yukimura-kun intimidates a classmate, stumbles upon their romance while searching for the culprit...
"Hahaha, as expected of the con artists!"
"Matsuno-senpai is so clever! She actually made you prove yourself!"
Some of the classmates around me were laughing so hard they were doubled over, while others were laughing so hard they were pounding the wall.
Kirihara pursed his lips and stuffed the card into his pocket.
Stepping into the campus is like entering a giant mobile game lobby.
Students gathered in small groups of two or three. Some pointed at the map, some exchanged notes mysteriously, and others rushed to a certain location.
The stalls were even more lively than yesterday, with banners and signs for NPCs hanging up everywhere, and some stall owners even dressed up in Showa-era attire.
Under the ginkgo tree, a silver-haired boy twirls a card between his fingers.
Whenever a student passes by—
"Plop~"
A counterfeit character card can magically slip into someone's pocket or bag.
A few minutes later, a first-year student wearing glasses screamed through the air: "What...what is this?!"
He held up the card, his voice trembling as he read: "You are the perpetrator. Please turn yourself in to the student council immediately, or you will face the most severe punishment at Rikkai University... Huh?!"
“piyo~”
Niou peeked out from behind the tree and winked slyly.
He turned and disappeared into the crowd.
-
Kirihara Akaya squeezed through the crowd and saw Yagyu-senpai standing in front of the student council office window, his glasses reflecting the sunlight, making it impossible to see his expression.
As I passed by the Kendo Club, Vice-Captain Sanada was surrounded by a group of students. He was holding a bamboo sword, dressed in a black and gray samurai outfit, and exuded a fierce aura.
"Sanada-kun! Where's the secret technique?!"
Please give us a clue!
The students shouted all at once.
Sanada's expression was even more serious than usual: "Too lax! Everyone, run ten laps!"
The students looked at each other, but no one moved.
Sanada sighed and looked at his identity card.
Name: Genichiro Sanada
Identity: Descendant of the last samurai
Mission: Guard the "Samurai Manual" that unlocks the secrets of the code.
"You want the 'Samurai Manual'?" Sanada said coldly, his bamboo sword flashing as it pointed at the students in the front row. "Only those who can defeat me will get the clues."
The onlookers were in an uproar.
"But...but we don't know kendo!"
Five minutes later.
Kirihara glanced at the challenger sprawled on the ground and swallowed hard. "The vice-captain is serious...?"
Sanada pulled an old scroll from his pocket, on which was written in ink, "Swift as the wind." In the corner was a chibi-style emperor—wearing a crown but holding a bamboo sword with a huff.
"Take this move, and the secret technique is yours."
Kirihara Akaya stared at the scroll, then glanced at the vice-captain's murderous gaze, chuckled dryly, and stepped back: "Um... can I refuse?"
Sanada: "Too lax!"
Kirihara：┮﹏┭
When Kirihara finally obtained the scroll, he found only one line of text inside:
Go find Niou Masaharu and obtain "The Conman's Notebook"
-
Behind the library, at the clue extraction point.
Liu Lianji sat in a rattan chair, a thick notebook open on his lap. He glanced at the crowd, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"Have you all come here to request the 'Probability Codex Book'?" His voice was calm as he pointed to the marble table beside him. "Then, please choose one of the conditions. Once completed, you will receive it."
On the table stands an acrylic sign. It reads:
[Choose one of the three acquisition conditions]
【Package A】- "The Trial of the Wise"
• Drink the specially prepared "enhanced potion" (lemon and ginger juice)
Write a 50-word experience report
【Package B】- "The Challenge of the Speed Calculator"
Solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube within 30 seconds
【Package C】- "The Data Maniac's Bet"
Answer three questions. Answer all correctly to obtain the password book, but if you get even one wrong...
The Rubik's Cube expert from the magic club confidently picked up the cube, his fingers flying across the paper, combining blocks of the same color, only to get stuck at the last second.
"Damn it!" the boy slammed his fist on the table in frustration.
He looked at the liquid with its eerie bubbles, extremely reluctantly, but still pinched his nose and gulped it down, writing "weird, awful, unbearable" with a distorted expression.
A bespectacled young man decisively chose Set Meal A. After downing it in one gulp, he calmly analyzed: "Acidity 9.2, sweetness 6.8, spiciness delayed by 1.5 seconds, still needs improvement."
Liu Lian'er opened his eyes a crack: "Colleagues are prohibited from participating. Doctor."
-
In the rose garden on the rooftop.
Yukimura's brush spun on the palette, his gaze shifting back and forth between the canvas and the girl.
"Risa, who exactly is the perpetrator?" he asked casually, his pen tip dabbing at a deep red.
The girl leaning against the wicker bench yawned and replied nonchalantly, "Who knows?"
"Didn't you write the script?"
"I forgot."
The paintbrush paused in mid-air.
Yukimura chuckled: "You didn't actually write the ending, did you?"
"Wouldn't it be more interesting to let the participants reason it out themselves?"
"......"
A cool breeze swept by, and Risa unconsciously shrank her neck.
"Hiss—" She slightly turned her stiff neck. "Is this enough? If this keeps up, my neck will be ruined."
Yukimura put down his paintbrush, walked behind her, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
Risa froze.
"Don't move." He gently pressed his fingertips along the lines of her neck. "The model's condition will affect the quality of the work."
"...Is this considered an extra service?"
Yukimura chuckled softly, his breath brushing against her earlobe: "It's a VIP exclusive perk."
Risa pursed her lips.
Where his breath touched, a crimson hue was visibly left.
"That's enough." Yukimura withdrew his hand and picked up his paintbrush again to add highlights to the eyes of the person in the painting.
On the canvas, the girl's profile is partially obscured by blooming roses. The interplay of light and shadow creates a serene yet vibrant beauty.
"Speaking of which, you actually made the entire tennis club play NPCs," he shook his head and chuckled, but his eyes were full of indulgence. "Risa owes me a big favor this time."
"There's nothing I can do; I don't know the others well. Besides—"
She winked slyly: "Didn't I pay you last night?"
Yukimura paused slightly with his pen.
A blush of red spread along the edge of the rose petals, like the flush on her cheeks from lack of oxygen last night, or like the ambiguity she was deliberately stirring up now.
He looked up at her, a half-smile playing on his lips: "Oh? So that was payment?" His pen fell again, tracing deeper floral shadows on the paper. "With a purpose?"
"Doesn't Oichi like it?"
Risa tilted her head, and the sunlight slanted down onto her neck, like a silent invitation.
"Or is it that... the Son of God has not been satisfied?"
With no one around, she was much bolder than usual. Her voice was soft, and her smile carried a hint of provocation and seduction.
Yukimura gently set down the palette.
"W-what are you trying to do?" Risa shrank back as he approached with ill intent.
Yukimura bent down, his shadow looming over her, a few strands of hair brushing against her cheek.
"That little bit of benefit..."
His fingertips touched her chin, lifting it slightly to force her to look directly at him.
"Not even a fraction of the amount."
A low, husky voice, accompanied by warm breath, wove an invisible net in the thin air.
Risa held her breath.
My gaze was involuntarily drawn to those thin lips. A pale red, like honey-soaked jelly, so soft it made me want to take a bite.
The sound of his heartbeat was deafening.
Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and she slowly closed her eyes.
The moment their lips were about to touch—
"Bang!"
The door to the rooftop was violently kicked open.
Three panting students held up clue cards: "Please, please hand over 'The Rose Diary'!" The boy in the front stopped abruptly, and the clue card in his hand fell to the ground with a "thud".
Yukimura subtly moved to the side, shielding Risa behind him.
"What a perfect timing, everyone." He smiled slightly at the students who were standing there dumbfounded.
The three students stared in disbelief, like ibex seeing a snow leopard, and took a step back in unison.
Yukimura bent down to pick up the fallen clue card and brushed the dust off with his fingertips.
"What did you all just see..." he looked up, "?"
"No, no, no... I didn't see anything..."
The three of them spoke in unison and shrank further into the corner.
"I see." Yukimura smiled innocently, his eyes crinkling.
He took a notebook off the easel. "Here, this is the coded notebook you wanted."
Risa peeked out from behind and saw that the three students' fingers were trembling as they took the notebooks, like small animals being targeted by their natural enemies.
The hurried footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and the rooftop door closed again.
Risa finally couldn't hold back her laughter, "Were you just threatening your classmate?"
"How could that be?" Yukimura looked innocent, and walked closer without making a sound, trapping her in a small space.
"I'm a model student."
What is said, and what is done.
Completely opposite.
Risa resisted his pressing body: "Wait, you don't mean you still want to—"
"What are you thinking about?" he asked, feigning ignorance.
Just then, the voice of student council president Yagyu Hiroshi suddenly came over the school's public address system.
"Please note that 35 people have already claimed to be the 'perpetrators'..."
"And the real mastermind—"
The broadcast was suddenly interrupted.
-
Inside the campus radio station, Yagyu pressed the stop button and turned to look at the detective team.
"Are you saying that I am the 'mastermind' behind the scenes?"
“That’s right.” The leader of the boys pointed at Yagyu and shouted, “The perpetrator who spread the legends of the Seven Mysteries—”
It's you!
Yagyu calmly pushed up his glasses: "Oh?"
"First, only you can control the school's broadcasting system!"
“Secondly,” the detective team opened their notebooks, “there are clues in the Probability Codebook that suggest the mastermind’s identity is extremely special.”
"Therefore, it can only be you, student council president—Yagyu Hiroshi."
Liu Sheng was silent for two seconds, then suddenly chuckled.
His slender fingertips touched the frame of the glasses, and in the instant the detective team held their breath—
"Click!"
With the sound of the glasses snapping open, he tore off a layer of disguise as thin as a cicada's wing from his forehead, and silver-blue hair slowly peeked out from the crack.
"Are you sure..." he slapped "Yagyu's" face away, "Am I really 'Yagyu Hiroshi'? Pfft~"
The entire detective team gasped in shock: "Niou Masaharu!!"
"Game Over! Piyo~"
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Author's Note: Dear esteemed "shareholders," the previous title had nothing to do with Prince of Tennis, so I changed it. If any of you knowledgeable shareholders have better suggestions, please leave a comment in the pinned post.
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Additionally: Some "shareholders" in the comments section expressed a desire to see their married life. This story's tone is more about dreams and choices; Yukimura won't give up tennis, and the partners of athletes often work very hard. But since the shareholders want to see that, the author will consider making it happen. [Hugs]
I feel that the next book I'm going to write, "Marrying a God's Child First, Then Later," is more in line with the tastes of "shareholders" who want to see the daily life of married life.
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