CH 53

“Yeah, sure!”

During the lunch break― I called Kisaragi-sensei in an empty corridor and asked her for a favor, and as soon as she heard my request, she agreed.

Eh, it was that easy!?

I, the one who brought up the subject, was surprised at the teacher’s willingness.

After all, a story is a story.

I had brought along some bargaining chips to persuade her― but they were all for naught.

“Sensei… that was pretty straightforward, but do you have any knowledge of stocks…?”

“Hmm? No idea! But since Kaito-chan asked for it, and since you’ve always been so helpful to me, it’s totally fine!”

Kisaragi-sensei then laughed with a tight face.

…This is strange no matter how you think about it, you know…?

However, this person doesn’t use common sense…

She says that she doesn’t know anything about stocks, and I guess she just doesn’t understand the gravity of the matter and she’s OK with the nonsense.

If that’s the case, it’s a whole lot better than bothering to explain it in detail and making her feel uneasy.

Besides, there’s another person I need to meet during my lunch break, so I’m glad I don’t have to spend my time here.

“Well then, I’ll be in touch with you soon. Also, as I said before, this conversation is―”

“I know, I’ll say that Saijo-san told me about this.”

“Please do so. I’ll be going now.”

“Yeah, you have tests coming up soon, so study hard!”

I bowed my head to Kisaragi-sensei’s words and headed for the next person I wanted to meet.

…To be honest, I’m not sure I’d trust Kisaragi-sensei with this.

However, there’s nothing I can do about it because there are no other adults I can rely on.

The next one is a person that I honestly don’t feel exactly comfortable with.

But without that person’s support, I wouldn’t be able to completely protect Kirara.

I was in front of their classroom― next to my class, but the person I was looking for was eating lunch with some girls.

Ugh… it’s hard to approach them…

I approached the student with that thought in mind.

I’m not sure if I’d want to entirely leave this kind of role to Kirara― but money is involved this time.

Even if you are normally a very good person, you become a different person when money is involved.

So I wanted to see for myself whether I could trust this person too or not.

And I didn’t bring Kirara with me, simply because this student is not very good with the likes of Kirara.

“Well, here’s someone unusual.”

As I approached the student, they gave me a friendly smile.

“Long time no see. I’d like to talk to you for a minute, is it okay?”

“…Wow, you’ve changed a lot since last year. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

“Thank you.”

I replied, and waited in the hallway for the student, Shirousagi Nagisa.

Shirousagi has brown dyed hair that is tied back in a ponytail, and relatively short.

Even though Shirousagi is not tall, their features include a cute face and a cheerful, friendly personality which is popular among the girls.

From what I’ve heard, Shirousagi also has a good sense of fashion and wears the girls’ uniform in a cute way.

Speaking of which, Shirousagi is also popular among boys.

“―Sorry for the wait.”

About five minutes later, Shirousagi came out of the classroom.

“Let’s move to a different place.”

I said, and Shirousagi nodded, so we moved to a less popular place.

The reason I was talking to Shirousagi― as far as I know, was the only student in the school who had stock in the company.

Shirousagi and I were in the same class last year.

At that time, I had heard that Shirousagi was making some money from stocks.

After all, it’s quite a well-known fact that Shirousagi is earning money from stocks.

Apparently, Shirousagi makes a lot of money from stocks.

Shirousagi is also a student who was kind to me when we were freshmen.

Shirousagi used to approach me in order to befriend me, but we drifted apart because I couldn’t talk to them properly.

However, I know Shirousagi is a good person because they’ve been kind to me, even though I’m a lazy, dark-skinned person.

That’s why I wanted this person to be a front for me.

“You’ve really changed… In the past, you used to be frightened when I spoke to you, but now you even speak bluntly. Furthermore, you’re now the center of rumors in the school.”

While we were walking, Shirousagi said so while laughing.

The rumors are about Kirara and Sakura-chan.

One of them is where I’m going out with either one of them― or the other, if I’m just messing around with both of them.

Naturally, it hurts my ears.

And it’s something I can’t even begin to describe…

“Maybe it just means I’ve grown up now… I’m really sorry about last year.”

I apologized for avoiding Shirousagi last year.

I thought I should apologize first before talking about the matter.

“It’s okay. Well, if you say you’ve gotten over your shyness, I’d be happy to be friends with you from now on.”

“A-ahh, I’d like to ask you about it here.”

While we were talking, we were able to move out of sight of the other students.

“What is it you want to talk about? Could it be by any chance― you had enough of Saijo-san and Momoi-san’s sister and came to mess with me too?”

After saying that, Shirousagi smirked.

“I’m just kidding. You’re a man after all, aren’t you?”

Yes, Shirousagi looks prettier than most of the girls out there, and also wears a girl’s uniform, but he’s actually a man.

It’s not that he’s g*y or something, it’s just that he likes cute clothes. (TLN: Heh, I did it on purpose to hide his gender until it was actually revealed here.)

It also goes without saying, his love interest is a girl.

In the beginning of the school year, when the boys found out that Shirousagi was a man, they caused a big ruckus…

“Though, I’m not a fan of that~. Anyways, it’s about the stock market, right?”

Shirousagi deliberately made a disgruntled face, and then asked me that.

Well, that’s the only way I’d ask him.

“That’s right. But before I get to the point, I want to ask you something. If you were to buy a stock in one of these companies right now, which one would it be?”

After saying that, I showed him a piece of paper with the names of companies listed on it.

“All of them are related companies. But if I had to choose… I would go with this one out of the four.”

The company I was thinking of was not one of the companies Shirousagi had chosen.

Is this really too much to ask?

When I thought about it, Shirousagi clapped his hands as if he remembered something.

“Could it be, you’re buying this company?”

Shirousagi said so― pointing at the Byodoin Faction.

“Hmm, I’m not entirely sure about this but… it’s a large company with a stable stock price, but they haven’t been doing very well lately. I don’t know if it’s because of this, but some people are speculating that the company is going to make a big announcement in the near future, although it’s only a few months away. So if I get more information, I’ll buy the stock of this company.”

Shirousagi said confidently.

“Then, if you were to play for one company’s stock within the next two weeks, which of these stocks would you buy? Excluding insider trading, the opponent is an executive of the Byodoin Faction.”

I’m aware that I’m talking about something tricky, but I tell him that.

I’m not going to tell him anything else, but I’ll get him to sign the contract at the end.

So no problems here.

“I see… if that’s the case, I would definitely buy shares of Byodoin Faction. I’m sure that the shares of other companies will go up, but they won’t jump that high, so I don’t think it’s a good bet. That being the case, the speculation that there might be a big announcement soon came from the words of an executive of the Byodoin Faction, which means it’s solid information. Furthermore, it will come within the next two weeks.”

I smirked at Shirousagi’s words.

“Well done. Shirousagi, do you want to make a deal with me?”

“Deal? What’s the deal?”

Shirousagi didn’t seem surprised that I said “deal” and tilted his head to the side.

I expected this to happen from the way the conversation was going.

If that’s the case, he’s a very quick thinker.

“I’ll tell you when to do it― I want you to use the 100,000 I have to buy the stock of this company.”

“You’re going to read the stock market? Not me?”

Shirousagi made a dubious expression as he said this.

That’s probably true.

He’s been doing it for a long time, and he thinks he has a better ability to read stock market trends than I do.

And he’s right.

But this time, Kirara will be the one doing that role.

As for why asked for his help― That was to use him as a front for KAI.

If it is confirmed that KAI was involved in the purchase of this stock, insider trading will be established.

No one can know who KAI is.

But it’s not a sure thing.

If it were proven that I was KAI, insider trading would be established as soon as I was involved in the purchase of the stock.

That’s why I tested the power of Shirousagi’s reading earlier.

If he was able to read that well, then my involvement with Kirara would end when I saw through Aria’s strategy but didn’t know which Byodoin Faction’s stock it was.

My goal was to make it look like Kirara had consulted with Shirousagi, who was known for his knowledge of the stock market at school, and not me, and that he had predicted the stocks Aria would buy.

Naturally, Aria wouldn’t be convinced by that, but it wouldn’t matter as long as it made sense.

If there was no one like Shirousagi, then the reason why Saijo was able to predict the stock that Aria would buy would certainly be suspected to be someone related to the Byodoin Faction or KAI who was involved in it.

Although the chances of finding out that it was me are not high, but they are not solid enough.

Besides, the fact that Alice calls me Kai and Aria wants to talk to me again, I’m sure that my existence is stuck in Aria’s mind.

In such a situation, if I were working with Saijo, the first thing she would suspect would be my existence― or more likely, KAI’s existence.

However, by having Shirousagi here, we can claim that we were able to predict it thanks to him.

So, no matter how much Aria insists on KAI, it won’t matter if we don’t admit that KAI was involved in the stock purchase itself.

If there’s no conclusive evidence that KAI was involved in the stock purchase, it’s not insider trading, even if KAI was involved in something other than the purchase.

…Unless, the clumsy teacher screws it up…

Well, I think it’s safe to say that what I asked that person to do is not something that she herself would do…

“Ah, I want you to buy it in time for me. If you do that, I’ll give you 100,000 yen as a reward.”

“100,000!? That’s all I have to do!?”

I nodded in agreement with Shirousagi’s words.

If it’s the money itself, Shirousagi probably has a lot more than that.

However, he probably thinks that the amount of money is out of proportion to the time and effort involved.

After all, he can get 100,000 yen just by buying stocks instead.

Nonetheless, it is a condition that I definitely want him to accept, so I’m not bothered with the amount of reward.

“It seems that this is important… Well, I think Saijo-san is probably involved in this…”

It seems that Shirousagi deduced this from the fact that I am always with Saijo and the name of the Byodoin Faction came up.

I knew it, he was a smart guy.

“All right, I’ll take you up on that. Can you tell me what I should do in detail?”

“Before that, I need you to sign this.”

I said, and took out the contract that I had prepared beforehand.

Shirousagi began to read the contents of the contract.

There are a lot of things written in the contract, but it can be summarized as follows:

1. You will not leak anything that happens between us to anyone.　2. You must do everything according to our instructions.　3. You will never betray us.　4. If you ever betray us, the person who did so must bear all the losses.

In fact, the amount of money that Kirara would have to bear if Shirousagi betrayed us would be far more than Shirousagi could pay.

However, as long as Shirousagi understands what kind of people are involved in this case, he will understand the weight of the fourth statement.

“I see, I can see that you are quite serious.”

After he signed the contract, he handed it back to me.

“Thank you. So, here’s what we’re going to do. First of all, I want you to create a new account on this app.”

The app I showed Shirousagi was the one that Aria had told Kirara to use in the game.

“I already have an account, is that not good?”

“Ah, no. The money is transferred from Saijo’s account― I don’t want anything else written on it that doesn’t have anything to do with the money being transferred from Saijo, other than the date and time of the transfer.”

When I said that, Shirousagi seemed to get it.

This time, Kirara would not be able to buy stocks with the 100,000 yen that she would be playing with.

That’s why she needs a substitute.

But the substitute would have to be able to prove that the money had been transferred from Kirara’s account on the app that she and Aria had prepared on the day of the game.

In other words, as long as she could prove that, there would be no problem in getting a substitute.

And thus, Aria would absolutely accept it.

No, she has to admit it.

After all, she herself would have made a substitute.

And that’s why they went to the trouble of making the rules so restrictive.

“Yeah, well, I’ll just create an account and wait for your call. So let’s exchange contact information.”

I nodded my head and exchanged contact information.

“Also, it’s almost summer vacation, so let’s hang out together.”

When we finished exchanging contact information, Shirousagi said with a smile.

“A-ahh… yes…”

I nodded awkwardly to Shirousagi.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you, but you’ve already promised to play with me…

People who are good at communicating are just built different…(TLN: pun intended)

I was jealous of the fact that he had the kind of communication skills that I did not have.

After that, I parted with Shirousagi and called Kirara.

“―Hello?”

As soon as I called, Kirara immediately picked up the phone.

“Hello, it’s Kaito. I’m ready to go. The rest is up to you, but are you sure you want to do this? If we’re going to turn back, it’s now or never, okay?”

I asked Kirara, just in case.

In the end, it’s Kirara’s life.

It’s not for me to decide.

“Yes― it’s okay. I’ve already made up my mind.”

Kirara replied in a strong voice.

“All right, then, let’s begin with the strategy now.”

And so we began to take action in order to defeat Aria―.