The azure sea, but a lonely, fulfilled life.

"Chisa said she needs to talk to me and asked me to go back."

"Are you trying to sneak away too?"

"Don't say such dangerous things." Iori's forehead was covered in cold sweat as she stared at the four gleaming silver forks less than a centimeter from her neck. "Chisa and I aren't as close as Hachiman and Chisa are. I guess she wants to talk to me about something else."

"Even so, I still find it a bit suspicious." Yamamoto put away his fork. After yesterday's betrayal, he found it hard to trust anyone anymore.

"Why don't we go to the Kitahara house together again? We don't have classes this afternoon anyway," Nojima suggested.

"I'm not going. I was studying for my makeup exam yesterday, and I haven't watched the new episode of Lala's sister series, Huhu. I recorded it on video yesterday and plan to watch it when I get back," Kohei said, raising his hand.

"Alright then, the few of us are enough to punish Kitahara."

"Have you already thought of the worst-case scenario? I haven't done anything yet!"

"Good luck to you guys, I'm heading out now."

Kohei grabbed his clothes, walked out of the cafeteria, and headed towards the school gate. The thought of seeing the anime he had been looking forward to when he got back made his steps feel much lighter.

It'll be soon, very soon! He's already walked out of the school gate.

"Hey, Kohei, you seem really happy."

"what?"

A chop to the back of his neck sent a soft electric current through his brain to his spine, causing him to collapse instantly.

Suppressing his resentment at not having achieved his dream, Kohei Imamura raised his head and looked at the black-haired boy standing at the door. Before he could say anything, he lost consciousness after being shocked again by the boy.

"This thing is really useful."

Hachiman looked at the stun gun he had borrowed from Chisa, smiled, looked around, and seeing that no one was around, he carried Kohei's body and walked in a certain direction.

The prank is about to begin.

Chapter Four: The Seven Deadly Sins - Pride

On their way back, Kitahara Iori and Yamamoto recounted the events of the morning. When they mentioned Chisa's meticulous care for Hachiman, Yamamoto and the others wore expressions worse than if they had eaten shit. They never imagined that their elaborate prank to embarrass Hachiman would actually help him win over the girl.

Why do girls only genuinely believe I'm stupid when I pretend to be?

Yamamoto was puzzled. He had thought of playing the victim to attract girls' attention, but they would usually glance at him and then immediately look away, pretending not to see him, and walk past him while chatting and laughing.

"Maybe they just don't want to disturb your private time."

Nojima Gen patted him on the shoulder, his eyes filled with pity. He knew very well that the reason the group of women ignored Yamamoto was because, in their minds, Yamamoto didn't seem to be faking it.

He's seriously out of his mind.

"But I also want a love story like a home invasion robbery!"

Isn't that how it is in those domineering female CEO comics? She meets a young man who faces the world with strength despite the hardships of life, and with a smile, she becomes interested. The next time they meet, she lifts the young man's chin and says, "You're quite an interesting man." Then, disregarding the young man's wishes, she takes out a sum of money to make him her boyfriend. Finally, after experiencing many love-hate relationships, they become a happy couple.

He really wanted that kind of experience! To that end, he even went out on the street pretending to be a down-on-his-luck beggar, snatched a bottle from a homeless man, and got beaten up.

"Give up, Yamamoto. The only consequence of a home invasion robbery is losing both your money and your property."

Nojima Gen pushed up his glasses. It was unrealistic to try to find a way to find a girlfriend by reading romance comics. The reason was that the male protagonists, regardless of their personality traits such as inferiority, irritability, gentleness, or indifference, usually had good-looking faces.

If someone like Yamamoto were to appear in a manga, he would definitely be a writer who, while drawing romance manga, is very likely still a virgin. One night, after indulging in some passion, he lay in bed savoring the afterglow and felt the need for a background character who could contrast with the protagonist and enhance the atmosphere. So, he casually added a few human features to the manuscript, and then, dissatisfied, spat on it, and the character was finished.

(This is not a veiled criticism of Inoue-sensei.)

"Speaking of which, didn't Hachiman have any particular reaction?"

Fujiwara looked at Iori. Logically speaking, after what they had done, the other party should have some feelings about it.

Iori shrugged: "He was still drunk when I left."

He hadn't thought about it, after all, they had tricked each other too many times, and given Hachiman's personality, he would always show some mercy, so he wasn't too worried.

As they chatted idly, they crossed the corner of the crossroads. The puddles formed by yesterday's rain reflected their youthful faces. Sunlight was scattered among the clouds, splitting the single gold into many vibrant colors, and the youthful spirit of the boys soared in the wind.

Before long, the sign for the diving shop 'Grand Blue' appeared at the end of the road.

Iori pushed open the shop door, just about to say "I'm back," when his gaze fell on a certain spot and his eyes widened in shock. The people behind him, puzzled as to why he froze, all craned their necks to look inside.

In the dimly lit hall, several bright glass lamps were placed on the floor, and in the center of each lamp stood a wooden carving, a cross as large as a human body.

On that cross, a naked, unconscious blond boy was bound by rough Malone rope. His expression, though unconscious, carried a hint of terror, and his dry lips were wide open, large enough to swallow an egg.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part. Iori and the others all turned their gazes to the other's genitals, where the unconscious blond boy was exercising with a rope attached to his genitals, with a plastic board tied to the other end.

Two large, bright red characters were written on the white foam surface.

【arrogant】

"What...what happened? Why is Kohei here?"

With trembling hands, Yamamoto pointed at Imamura Kohei, who looked as if he had been bent over, and asked helplessly, "Just twenty minutes ago, our friend left the school in high spirits, ready to go back and enjoy his own fine wine. Why is it that after such a short time apart, he has become like this?"

Iori stared at his best friend's miserable state, swallowed hard, and understood exactly what was going on.

“This is a declaration of war,” he said slowly.

"Declare war?" Nojima realized what was happening. "You mean..."

“That’s right, everyone, have you seen the movie Seven?” Iori scanned the room with his sharp eyes, searching for the culprit. “Hachiman, he’s planning to ‘kill’ us based on the templates of the victims in the movie.”

"So, does that mean we might end up like Imamura?" Mitarai narrowed his eyes, sensing a dangerous aura.

"It might be even worse."

Iori gritted his teeth. He had been too careless. He hadn't expected the retaliation to be so fierce and merciless.

"Everyone, let's look for any clues. This might be the key to our survival."

Iori waved his hand, adopting the demeanor of a leader. Influenced by his impassioned emotions, everyone nodded solemnly.

The group split up and searched outwards in the five directions where Imamura Kohei was located, trying to find any clues about the murderer.

There's no kitchen!

"There's no activity room either!"

"Second floor, no one's there!"

"No one's on the balcony!"

Listening to the other people's reports, Iori bit her fingernails. How could this be? Wasn't today a business day? Not to mention Hachiman, even the manager and Nanaka-nee-san are nowhere to be found, and Chisa too. Didn't she tell me to come back because she had something to tell me? Where are they?

"Wait a minute! Something seems off here, Imamura!"

Nojima's shout drew everyone's attention. They saw him crouch down, looking directly at the other person's Truth-Seeking Ball, his expression slightly unnatural.

No way, could it be that they were persecuted there too? Instead of being trained, they were being trained?

"Ahem." As the leader, one must maintain composure even in the face of a collapsing mountain. Iori took the lead and squatted down, asking, "Is something wrong?"

"What's written on the back of the sign?"

Nojima flipped the hanging sign over, and at the same time, the pitch-black Truth-Seeking Ball trembled.

"..." I feel like my eyes are going blind.

"Isn't that the little anime character on Imamura's clothes?" Yamamoto and the others also leaned closer to take a look. "There's nothing special about it."

“Look closely, what’s written in her eyes?”

Nojima pointed to the eyes of the anime character, and everyone looked at him as he read the words aloud, one by one.

"eggplant."

"What do you mean?" Iori was completely confused.

*Snap, thud*

"What's that sound!" Everyone's eyes narrowed, and they quickly turned to look at a camera on a shelf not far away, with a bottle containing a few small pieces of wood lying next to it.

Iori walked over, picked up the camera, and opened the storage. Inside was a photo of the group of them squatting together, watching Kohei's Qiudao Ball. It had also been automatically uploaded to someone's computer.

His face immediately contorted in a bewildered expression. How could this be! How could he have predicted such a perfect timing!

"There is a string on this bottle."

Mitarai picked up the bottle and displayed it to everyone. A thin thread was wrapped around the bottle.

Iori fell silent; he had seen that line before.

He turned to look at the rope above the plastic surface, where a thin line, slightly different in color, was wrapped around it, and under his gaze, the line became increasingly clear.

Iori lowered his head and looked at the thin thread on the ground, which was completely unnoticeable unless you looked closely. He raised his hand to cover his face, thinking that he had accidentally gotten tangled up, but it turned out that he had just touched it.

Indeed, when working in a team, one should speak freely and without reservation!

Chapter Five: The Seven Deadly Sins - The Game

Hello, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable...

Sure enough, the phone was also unreachable.

The blazing sun shone down on Iori. Despite it being a rare sunny day, he felt a chill run down his spine. This sense of being hunted awakened the fear in his primal instincts.

"How to say?"

"No, I can't get through."

Kitahara Iori shook his head. He looked at the store entrance not far away. At this moment, Kohei was still tied to the cross, cosplaying as Jesus. It wasn't that they didn't want to put him down, but they were worried that the person who did all this was hiding something else.

He bit his fingernails, his mind racing with thoughts.

Since ancient times, the position of military advisor has symbolized the existence of a strategist, the most intelligent person in the military camp. Therefore, when he witnessed the other party's betrayal, he began to panic.

"Let's work together for the rest of the day. He can't possibly take down all four of us at once. We'll catch him during tomorrow's morning class."

As the only one of the five who wore glasses, Nojima Gen, true to his nearsightedness, quickly came up with a solution.

"But what if Hachiman skips class tomorrow?"

Iori proposed the worst-case scenario: if the other party was determined to retaliate, it was unlikely that one or two classes would stop him from moving forward.

"Then let's be together tomorrow too!"

At worst, you can use the "Seven-Day Lock of Unbreakable Bond" and pair up; this also has a very high success rate.

"But we have to go home eventually, don't we?"

Mitarai spoke up, saying he didn't want to spend all his time with them. He had been having a great time chatting with his childhood friend whom he hadn't seen in a long time, and things were starting to look like they were about to cross the line.

As the most likely person in this group to lose his virginity first, he didn't want to waste this opportunity.

"That's really a problem."

Nojima pondered. He couldn't possibly say that they would spend the whole day together, because that might lead others to mistakenly believe that they had a strange sexual orientation. He could accept not having a girlfriend, but he absolutely could not accept being insulted by others for being gay!

“Then we have no choice but to find Hachiman today,” Fujiwara said.

"How do we find the problem?" Yamamoto asked.

Everyone fell silent. The murderer had left no clues; the scene was cleaned up perfectly. Apart from leaving behind his perfect art, there was no other relevant information.

[Beep, beep]

Everyone looked at Yamamoto's pocket.

Yamamoto took out his phone; it was a call from Shimokawa.

He answered the call and held it to his ear: "Hello, what's up? Shimokawa."

"Yamamoto, did you check the campus forum today? There's something really interesting." A boisterous laugh came from the other end, leaving all five people present completely bewildered.

Campus forum? Interesting stories?

Iori opened his phone and went to the student forum of Izu University. As soon as the interface loaded, his eyes bulged out.

The top-of-the-line post's cover image prominently featured a scene from the past, after a women's beauty pageant, where he and Kohei Hachiman were being chased and hiding in the bushes. However, Hachiman was missing from the image, meaning it had been photoshopped.

In a panic, Iori clicked into the post and saw the caption accompanying the picture.

My mind and my heart are both saying, I love you~

Is it possible?

He opened the video and saw himself in the video, dressed as a corpse monster, doing the same actions she had done, grabbing Kohei's collar, speaking in a shy yet direct tone.