I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

"By the way... Ibuki, do you usually exercise in the afternoon?"

Hearing the shouts around him, Shiina reluctantly put down the rice ball in his hand and looked at Ibuki, who seemed to be practicing her moves very seriously in the open space not far away.

"How could such a thing be possible! Who would have nothing better to do than practice something like this? We're choosing competition events soon, so I'd like to take advantage of the time I still have to practice. I haven't been active in a while, and my movements feel quite rusty."

As Ibuki spoke, she demonstrated several impressive kicking techniques in succession.

It looks like Ibuki is practicing very seriously.

Shiina was somewhat surprised that the usually lazy Ibuki had become serious because of the special exam, which should be a good thing for Ibuki or Class C.

If Ibuki could put that kind of energy into her studies, she'd probably be saved from the list of failing students in no time.

"That being said, don't push yourself too hard. Suddenly increasing your physical training can easily lead to injury, and besides..."

Shiina hesitated for a moment, but decided not to discourage Ibuki's confidence. It seemed that Ryuen had no intention of letting Ibuki play this time, so no matter how hard Ibuki practiced, it would probably be useless. However, it was rare for Ibuki to work so hard, so he decided not to discourage her.

"Besides what?"

Before Ibuki finished speaking, her gaze suddenly turned to the road not far away. Since the two of them were sitting diagonally opposite the abandoned multi-functional teaching building, using the reflection of another building to block the sunlight, they could not see anything on the road from the corner.

But that didn't stop them from hearing the clattering sound of running.

Has someone arrived?

Shiina stood up, somewhat curious.

I never expected that besides the two of them, there would be other people who would choose to come here during their lunch break.

"It doesn't seem like it. The speed is very fast, and the force of the foot landing is also very strong. It would be very tiring for a person to run like that. The only animal I can imagine is a horse or something. Anyway... it's definitely not human. Hiyori, stand behind me."

Although it sounded like a two-legged creature running, the force with which it stomped the ground was quite loud. It didn't sound like a horse's hooves hitting the ground, because that kind of sound is crisp, which I could recognize. The main reason I judged it to be a horse-like creature was because it sounded like horseshoes hitting the ground, except there was no clanging of metal...

As they drew closer, Ibuki took a deep breath, ready to run away with Shiina at any moment. Although her running speed wasn't particularly fast, it was still relatively fast compared to Shiina's.

suddenly!

The moment the sound abruptly stopped, a figure flew through the air past them and kicked a large tree outside the abandoned multi-functional teaching building.

boom!

The immense impact even made the tree tremble backward. Using the strong reaction force, Tianyin smoothly completed a perfect backflip and landed steadily on the ground.

A clearly visible shoe print was left on the trunk of the tree, proving that someone had treated it in an extremely rough manner.

"..."

Ibuki and Shiina, standing to the side, were stunned, staring in disbelief at the masterful, fluid, and decisive attack.

"Tianyin is amazing..."

Shiina picked up the rice ball packaging and clapped for Amane.

Hearing the applause, Amane, whose inner turmoil had just subsided, finally noticed Shiina and Ibuki.

"Hiyori? Mio? What are you doing here?"

Tianyin was also surprised to run into an acquaintance in such a godforsaken place; this school was indeed quite small.

"Ah, I was planning to have lunch here. It seems like Ibuki-san is here to exercise... her body, hmm."

As soon as she opened her mouth, the rice ball fell to the ground. Fortunately, Shiina reacted quickly and caught the rice ball in time. But then she realized that she had almost let something slip. She tried to cover her mouth, but she didn't know where to put the rice ball. She could only use the rice ball to block her mouth to indicate that she would not say anything more.

However, just from this information, Amane roughly understood what Ibuki was doing here. Ibuki's physical abilities were quite good for a girl, but they were completely lacking among boys. Amane remembered that Ibuki had told her that she had defeated several boys in junior high school.

That experience probably gave Ibuki a lot of confidence. However, based on Amane's previous observations, Ibuki's strength was really worrying. Even Horikita in his normal state could easily defeat her. It would be basically impossible for her to defeat a high school boy now. The difference in strength would be very difficult to overcome unless she trained her skills more rigorously.

"Really...?"

When Amane heard Ibuki's surprised voice change, she quickly turned around to look, only to find that Ibuki was actually studying the shoe print on the tree.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean, 'what happened'? Tianyin, how did you do that? You're definitely not wearing spiked shoes, so how did you leave marks on the tree?"

What shocked Ibuki the most was the shoe print that penetrated five centimeters deep into the tree trunk.

Don't underestimate this depth of only five centimeters. You have to understand that this is not a small tree. In front of Ibuki is a large tree that would require at least three people to stretch their arms to encircle. The thickness of its trunk is enough to withstand a person's impact, let alone just a kick. And Amane's kick even made the trunk tilt slightly.

Ibuki, who was skilled in kicking, naturally knew how terrifying this kick was. If she were to take this kick, it wouldn't just be a question of whether her ribs would break; it wouldn't be impossible for it to send her to paradise.

In an instant, Ibuki felt that his training was as ridiculous as child's play compared to Amane.

"How did I do that... I just ran and ran and then I saw this tree and kicked it because I didn't like it."

Tianyin shrugged. She didn't know how to explain this. Just now, she was so frustrated that she just wanted to find something to destroy. Unfortunately, there was nothing to destroy to vent her anger except for the teaching building and various stone tablets. Not only would kicking a stone tablet require paying for it, but kicking the walls of the teaching building was something only someone with a serious mental illness would do.

She just wanted to vent, not to feel pain.

Amane's explanation left Ibuki speechless, unable to make any expression other than being dumbfounded.

Shiina, fearing it might dampen Ibuki's confidence, decided to encourage her.

"It's alright. No matter how much you train, you can't reach the level of Amane, but you are still very important to everyone."

"Hey! Hiyori! Even if what you're saying is true, it's still incredibly hurtful!!!"

"Then let me put it in a gentler way... Ibuki-kun, I suggest you change your development direction."

"Damn it! You're all bad people!!"

Upon hearing Shiina's words, Ibuki became so angry that she stopped eating her rice ball and turned to run towards the school building.

"Huh? I was just passing by, it has nothing to do with me... That Mio guy, really..."

When Amane heard that Ibuki had brought her in as well, she quickly tried to explain and prove that she was a good person.

However, Ibuki, who left in tears, seemed not to have heard what Amane said at all.

When Amane turned around, she saw Shiina sticking out her tongue cutely and immediately realized that Shiina had deliberately blown I away.

"I was wondering when you became so sharp-tongued, Hiyori. I didn't expect you to be so mean that you made Mio run away. Let's see how you coax her now."

Amane found a shady spot to sit down, and Shiina obediently followed and sat down right next to her.

"Hehe, I had no choice. Ibuki-san's practice was really too loud. I was hiding here for peace and quiet, but we're all friends who see each other all the time, so there are some things that are just not convenient to say. Luckily, Amane, you're here, so I can tease Ibuki-san a little. As for coaxing her... I'll buy her her favorite drink as an apology. Ibuki-san isn't that petty, she'll definitely forgive me."

While taking small bites of her rice ball, Shiina explained her thoughts in a very organized manner.

Amane couldn't help but admire Shiina for coming up with a way to get rid of Ibuki in such a short time, and for also thinking of a plan to make up for it later.

Although they are all simple things, the simpler the things are, the more they test a person's character and way of dealing with people.

Shiina was so meticulous that she was practically perfect. Fortunately, Shiina was interested in being promoted to Class A but disliked the brutal battles.

Otherwise, it's hard to imagine that in the early days of first grade, when all the classes hadn't even been integrated yet, Ryuen would have attacked other classes with opponents of Shiina and Albert's caliber. Apart from Ichinose, could the remaining classes have withstood Ryuen's attack?

"Tianyin, what are you thinking about? You're not thinking about anything rude, are you?"

Shiina subtly covered her chest, because Amane had a habit of looking at a certain part of her body when she was distracted, which led to Shiina's misunderstanding.

It's fair to say that Tianyin's little quirks are almost common knowledge among girls.

"How could that be! I'm a respectable person. By the way, Hiyori, your rice ball looks a little off."

Amane pointed with a look of horror at Shiina's teeth, which had been stained black. Although it looked somewhat like the demeanor of a nobleman from ancient times, Amane found it unacceptable to her.

The reason Shiina's teeth were stained black was actually the rice ball in her hand!

"It seems to be filled with black sesame seeds... I was wondering why there would be such a strange filling. I remember the new owner of the bakery said that there are dishes made with this kind of filling that are very popular abroad, so I wanted to try it, but it doesn't seem to go very well with rice balls..."

Despite saying it wasn't a good match, Shiina ate it all up to avoid wasting food, and then took out another rice ball and took a bite.

"Oh! It's apple filling... Wait! Why is it apple filling?!"

Chapter 190: You actually dared to choose a project when I asked you to?

"Apple filling? Hiyori, are you kidding me? I've only ever heard of plums being added, how could there be apples in it?"

Amane leaned closer, somewhat disbelieving. Shiina, with a mournful face, held up the rice ball to Amane's lips, and Amane took a bite.

To be honest, the taste was pretty good, and the rice balls were quite delicious too. However, after looking at the words "fruit rice balls" on the packaging and Shiina's pouty little mouth that could almost hang a bag, Amane held back her praise.

"That's outrageous! How can you use apple filling to make rice balls? That's absolutely heresy!"

But when faced with the indignant Amane, Shiina narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Tianyin, you're not telling the truth! It must taste really good, right?"

"Huh?!"

Amane was surprised that Shiina could see through her disguise.

"You had such a happy smile on your face when you put the rice ball in your mouth. I don't think I've ever seen you smile so happily before."

Shiina also gave a faint smile and nudged the rice ball in Amane's hand.

"So what flavor is your rice ball? It can't be a normal flavor, can it?"

Shiina's timely change of topic prevented Amane from feeling awkward for long. As soon as the topic of the rice ball in her hand came up, Amane's expression became quite interesting.

"Here, take a look for yourself."

Amane handed the rice ball to Shiina, who was so surprised when she saw the name on the packaging that her mouth dropped open slightly.

"Can you really fit Mapo Tofu inside such a small rice ball?"

Strictly speaking, rice balls aren't actually that big; they're just enough to fill up an adult.

A normal rice ball is about half the size of your palm, while one with more fillings might be as big as your entire palm.

However, the rice ball in front of her, which was the size of a fist, was described as a small rice ball by Shiina, which was a bit beyond Amane's expectations. Even if she were to eat it, it would take her some effort. Amane even wondered if she had misheard something.

"So spicy, so spicy!!! Water!"

"Water? I have orange juice here, Hiyori, you go first..."

Before she could finish speaking, Shiina grabbed the orange juice and gulped down several mouthfuls before returning to normal. Looking at the reddish filling, Amane said she didn't want to eat such strong-flavored food for lunch.

Just when Amane thought Shiina was going to throw away the rice ball, she unexpectedly took another bite.

"So spicy, so spicy..."

By the time Shiina finished eating the rice ball, it was almost time for class. After witnessing that Shiina used four bottles of beverage to finish the rice ball, Amane completely gave up on the idea of ​​giving Horikita that flavored rice ball.

Heaven knows if Horikita, who can't handle spicy food, will throw her out of the room after eating this rice ball.

At first, Amane mistakenly thought that Shiina was reluctant to throw the rice ball away, so she forced herself to eat it and tried to persuade her for a long time. It wasn't until Shiina said that the rice ball was delicious that she realized that Shiina was the kind of girl who was both picky and loved to eat.

Although the spicy flavor was hard to accept at first, it became quite addictive after a while, and I found it actually tasted pretty good. In addition, it's probably because the chef, Kiryuin, is very good at cooking. I should have bought more other flavors for Suzune to try.

Huh? Ringtone?

Have I forgotten something?

"Rinne!!!"

A howl echoed down the corridor.

Horikita, who had just woken up and was holding her books to review her lessons, was speechless when she heard Amane's voice coming from the corridor.

After a full minute, Amane burst into the classroom, panting, carrying food. Seeing that it was full of snacks and drinks from vending machines, Horikita knew that Amane had definitely forgotten her instructions and was doing something else.

"You actually came back? I thought you disappeared after leaving the classroom. A whole hour has passed since I called you. What were you doing? Could it be... that you went on a date with a cute girl and forgot to bring me lunch?"

Horikita looked Tenon up and down with a suspicious gaze.

"How could that be! I've been keeping in mind everything you told me, Rin. It's just that there was a little accident on the way..."

Under such gazes, Amane unconsciously looked away, and Horikita also stood up and leaned close to Amane's shoulder to gently sniff.

"This shampoo definitely doesn't belong to you, Amane, and it's definitely not from Sakayanagi, Karuizawa, or Ichinose... Who could it be... Hmph."

Horikita gave a disgruntled snort, then found a tiny strand of hair on Amane's shoulder, almost invisible to the naked eye.

"White? Sakayanagi, Kiryuin, and Shiina... Sakayanagi's shampoo doesn't smell this mild, and Kiryuin-senpai's hair is very long, so it's obviously not Kiryuin-senpai's. So there's only one answer left."

Horikita pinched the cheek of Amane, who was already dumbfounded.

I originally thought Horikita was just being wary of girls, but I never expected him to be so strange!

Is this really Horikita? Could it be that some detective genius like Sherlock Holmes has possessed him?

"I think Lingyin, you should consider becoming a private investigator. You'll definitely become a super outstanding private investigator!"

Amane expressed her appreciation for Horikita's keen observation skills.

Horikita responded to Amane with a smile.