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

"I was just making the most reasonable deductions based on the actual situation, not thinking about strange things all day long, as you say, Hiyori. But Hiyori, if you weren't recording key plot points, why would you bring a notebook to watch horror movies? Let me make it clear, I don't believe excuses like 'I accidentally brought it with me'~"

Amane winked at Shiina, giving her a hint. This reminded Shiina Hiyori of a time long ago, before she and Amane were so familiar with each other. She had wanted to recommend a book she particularly liked to Amane, but because she couldn't find a suitable time and was too shy to talk to Amane, Shiina could only carry that book to school every day, hoping that one day she would have the opportunity to recommend it to Amane.

Sure enough, hard work pays off. Shiina successfully found a situation where she could meet Amane alone, and after Amane greeted her as usual, Shiina was overjoyed and immediately took out the book from her bag to recommend it to Amane.

Although Amane had already read the contents, she accepted it despite Shiina Hiyori's strong recommendation. However, Amane raised a rather crucial question.

"Hiyori, why do you always bring your bag to the restroom? Wouldn't it be more convenient to leave it in the classroom?"

Shiina, stunned by Amane's casual question, wanted to find a reasonable excuse to hide how much she wanted to recommend the book to her friends, but she didn't have any friends to recommend it to. So she decided to recommend it to Amane, with whom she had a fairly good relationship. In order not to miss the opportunity to recommend it to Amane, she had been carrying a bag containing the book with her for more than ten days.

It was fortunate that Shiina Hiyori didn't carry that big backpack that could hold more than a dozen books and weighed about 20 or 30 pounds when full. Otherwise, it would have been quite difficult for her to do anything. After all, that was something that Amane thought was outrageous. It would have been quite a test of Shiina's physical fitness to carry that bag with her. However, it seems that Shiina always carried that bag with her...

In short, Shiina, who had never lied before, naturally had a brain freeze when she was thinking of an excuse, and in a moment of inspiration, she gave Amane a rather classic answer.

"Oh dear, I accidentally brought this book with me."

Shiina, who could say such things in the bathroom, is in a sense a strong woman.

After realizing how outrageous her words were, Shiina blushed and made up another excuse, saying she was going to wait for Ibuki in the bathroom, to urge Amane to leave first.

This incident was later used by Amane to make fun of Shiina, and every time it would make Shiina show a slightly frantic yet helpless expression of utter despair.

Amane definitely didn't use it to tease Shiina Hiyori from time to time because she found it amusing to see Shiina's utterly hopeless expression after her dark past was brought up.

It's definitely not because I find it funny!!

"Here we go again! I knew you'd bring that up, Tianyin. I already explained that it was just me... Waaaaah, Tianyin, you're the worst! I'm never recommending good books to you again."

Shiina pouted and muttered complaints about Amane's 'misdeeds'.

However, Amane didn't care much about this. After all, given Shiina's personality, she would definitely drag Amane along to read any new books that came to the library. Whenever Shiina saw a new mystery or detective novel, she would strongly recommend it to Amane, who was keen on reading manga.

Over time, this has become a habit, and breaking a habit isn't so easy, Hiyori-chan~

"Alright, alright, I won't bully you today, is that okay?"

"What about tomorrow?"

"If I run into Hiyori tomorrow... hehe..."

"Tianyin, you might as well just let me die. If I had known you would remember that incident for so long, I shouldn't have recommended that book to you."

In short, Shiina regretted it deeply. The story that happened in the bathroom that afternoon would remain a nightmare for her for a long time to come.

"Ahem, hey~ hey~ Hiyori, don't be so pessimistic. Maybe I'll forget about this someday. Speaking of which, Hiyori, you still haven't told me why you're here."

Amane felt a little uncomfortable under Shiina's disdainful look that said, "I don't believe you," so she quickly changed the subject.

Seeing that Amane could finally let her go, Shiina reached into her pocket and took out a movie ticket, handing it to Amane.

"That's why I'm here. It's nothing to be curious about, so I'm sorry to disappoint you, Amane... right? Amane? Why are you looking at me like that? It's like..."

The expression was like looking at a paramecium.

Amane asked Shiina why she was there, and Shiina handed Amane a movie ticket. After checking the ticket, Amane realized that it was the ticket for this horror movie.

So Amane interpreted it as Shiina appearing in this place because she bought a movie ticket.

Yes, the explanation is fine and reasonable.

But this is not the answer Tianyin wants!

Anyone can tell that those sitting here have bought movie tickets! People without tickets showing up here are basically fare-dodging!

A few seconds later, Shiina realized that she had handed the movie ticket to Amane and was trying to explain why her behavior here was so absurd. Shiina blushed and a little flustered, snatched the movie ticket from Amane's hand and pointed to the contents on it.

"Here! It was the content on this page that drew me here."

Chapter 30: I Heard You Like Me Too

Following the direction Shiina was pointing, Amane saw on the movie ticket that the distributor had indeed used a more eye-catching, different colored font to highlight something they wanted to draw attention to.

For example, it might say that buying a second movie ticket for the same showtime offers a 30% discount and includes a free serving of popcorn and cola for two people.

Although the school's attitude towards dating between boys and girls is not to support early relationships, various facilities in the school seem to be unrelated, but in fact, they are all targeting couples for marketing purposes.

But... what does this have to do with Shiina? If Shiina came to see this movie because of the discounted ticket price, then someone else must have another identical movie ticket.

Normal people wouldn't buy couple tickets with friends to watch a horror movie, right?

Did Hiyori come with other people?

Amane looked around but didn't see any familiar faces. Although Class A and Class C weren't exactly on good terms, Amane knew the girls in Class C like the back of her hand. If Shiina had someone with her to the movies, it would only be a girl from her class. If a boy had come with Shiina, it would have been big news.

"No, I came here to watch a movie alone today. Tianyin, why would you ask that question?"

Shiina tilted her head curiously, seemingly not understanding why Amane thought she could find someone to watch a horror movie with her.

"Oh, I see. Didn't you just show me the second discount ticket that offered a 30% off? I guessed that someone might have bought two tickets to come with you. Now it seems that you two didn't plan to meet up?"

Amane mistakenly believed that the other person might be absent due to other matters, which was why Shiina came alone.

To Amane's surprise, Shiina also came over to take a look at the contents.

"Turns out you can get a 30% discount on the second movie ticket if you buy two! Although buying two tickets might seem a bit wasteful, considering that the second ticket comes with a discount and a free drink and popcorn, it's practically like the second ticket is only 10% of the original price. It's a really good deal!"

After Shiina Hiyori finished her serious analysis, Amane gently tapped her head with a chop.

"If I let you keep thinking about this, it'll never end. So, you're saying you have another reason for watching horror movies?"

Amane recalled that she had only casually asked a simple question, but Shiina had dragged her into analyzing it for about half an hour. Although the result was the same as Shiina's analysis, it was better not to let her analyze it in this situation.

However, Amane didn't come away empty-handed. At least from Shiina's attitude, we can tell that Shiina didn't notice the movie ticket discount, which means she didn't make plans to watch the movie with anyone else. It's actually quite rare for Shiina to go to the movie theater alone.

She usually spends all her time in the library, so has she suddenly become interested in studying movies?

"Of course, I bought a ticket on the first day of its release because the movie advertised elements of mystery and adventure! But..."

At first, Shiina's face was full of anticipation, but when the movie was mentioned, her expression became very conflicted.

Tianyin re-examined the movie ticket and found that it was indeed marked at the bottom as containing elements of mystery and adventure.

But when Tianyin thought back on the movie's plot, she realized that there didn't seem to be any situations that required deduction. As for adventure... exploring a haunted house could barely be considered an adventure.

However, this is still somewhat far-fetched. Although the whole series is quite scary and terrifying, it is only average for Tianyin. The logic of the plot is even more hard to describe. If I had to give it a score out of 10, I would give this movie 3 out of 10.

The reason why this movie, with its fragmented plot and false advertising, still gets a 3 out of 5 from Tianyin is simply because the female lead is very beautiful.

However, for Shiina, who was drawn to adventure and mystery genres... this was probably pure torture.

I forced myself to endure it in order to see the plot I was looking forward to, only to find out at the end that it was all false advertising...

It's fortunate that the girl who got tricked was Shiina, who's easy to bully. If Amane had been tricked herself, she would have definitely torn this damn screening room down.

"Well, life is always full of surprises, Hiyori, you have to learn to look forward~"

Amane patted Shiina on the shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"But... but this is the third time I've been scammed..."

It's unrealistic to expect anything from Shiina, as it turns out.

Shiina is usually a very smart girl. If you had to give her a precise ranking, she would probably be smarter than Horikita and Ichinose, only slightly less smart than Sakayanagi, and even more smart than her classmates Kaneda and Ryuen.

However, Shiina doesn't like fighting, so Ryuen doesn't usually involve her in his games, which means Shiina rarely appears in special exams where there is direct confrontation.

In addition, Shiina has her own form-switching ability. When talking to Shiina about mystery novels, Shiina's intelligence will increase significantly, and to some extent, she can also perceive the other person's psychological changes without being taught.

However, in her daily life, Shiina uses her 'cleverness' to make herself less conspicuous. As one of the few people who know Shiina's true strength, Amane finds it hard to imagine how powerful the evil movie theater owner must be to have tricked Shiina three times.

"How about I treat you to dinner tomorrow? There's some really delicious food~ Consider it a consolation prize for the movie tickets."

Upon hearing about the consolation prize, Shiina felt even more aggrieved. Why would she be given a consolation prize, a kind of compensation that sounded pitiful, just for buying a movie ticket?

However, Shiina found Amane's advice quite useful. As everyone knows, Amane is an expert when it comes to food. Amane would occasionally post food information on the school's internal forum, telling others which shops in the school had better food, which ones gave larger portions, which ones were the most affordable, and so on. She would also give expert-level evaluations and scores based on eight aspects, including taste, price, and decor. She would also update information on newly opened restaurants from time to time. As a result, Amane's posts were known as the food guide of Kaoyu High School.

Shiina had seen many first-year students looking at posts on Amane on their phones while searching for suitable shops.

So when Tone offered to treat her to dinner, Shiina was very happy. After all, her dinners were usually fast food from the supermarket, so Shiina readily agreed to the rare opportunity to improve her meals.

However, Shiina will soon understand what it means to have no free lunch.

"Tianyin...aren't we going to eat? Why are we here? Could it be that you're planning to...?"

Shiina looked at Amane, who was physically inspecting two loose, washed carrots, with a bewildered expression as she carried two already full shopping baskets.

"This one tastes good, let's take this one. Now we have all the ingredients. What did Rihe say to you just now?"

After putting the bag of carrots into the already overflowing shopping basket, Tianyin, feeling satisfied, picked up two large bags of various bottles and jars of seasonings, flour, and cooking oil, and then decided to end her little shopping trip.

Amane originally planned to take Shiina to a nearby restaurant or a snack stall to buy some food, but after hearing Shiina say that she usually eats fast food bento boxes, Amane immediately changed her plans and decided to take this opportunity to show off her cooking skills to Shiina.

To be fair, Shiina's cooking skills aren't bad, but she's not too picky about food. Plus, she spends most of her time reading, so she doesn't want cooking to take up her precious time. And since she has to wash dishes and do housework after eating, Shiina decisively chose quick and easy-to-clean bento boxes.

This resulted in Shiina's family having almost no food or seasonings in reserve, which is why Amane bought a considerable amount of food, cooking utensils, and seasonings all at once, as if she had looted a farmers' market.

Seeing that both she and Amane had their hands full, even if Shiina was slow to react, she could guess what Amane wanted to do. The thought of Amane going to her room to cook for her made Shiina wary and keep her distance from Amane.

Amane had been to Shiina's room before, and there was nothing that made her feel embarrassed or inconvenient. However, Shiina clearly felt that Amane was going to cook for Shiina, and considering the rumors about Amane, it was no wonder that even Shiina kept her distance.

"Let's get this straight first, Tianyin, you're only coming to my dorm to prepare a consolation dinner for me. You're not allowed to do anything else!"

Before opening the door, Shiina emphasized the purpose of Amane's visit, seemingly afraid that Amane might take advantage of the cooking to eat her up as well.

"I understand, I understand. But seriously, I'm a perfectly decent girl, so why are you treating me like a thief?"

Upon hearing Amane say that she was a proper and good girl, Shiina hesitated for several minutes in front of the door. Just when Amane began to wonder if Shiina was asleep, Shiina, who had barely managed to suppress her urge to complain, finally opened the door to the room.

"Please come in. The room may be a bit messy, I hope you can forgive me, Tianyin."

After changing her shoes, Shiina went to the kitchen to put on an apron and even cutely rolled up her sleeves, looking like she was going to help Amane.

Amane initially thought Shiina was just being polite, but after entering the room, she realized that Shiina genuinely had no interest in tidying up. Although everything seemed fine at first glance, upon closer inspection, there were unmade beds, clothes carelessly left in the laundry basket awaiting washing, and leftover fast food containers on the table. It was clear that Shiina had spent a very decadent day on her day off.

Who would have thought that Hiyori Shiina, who is usually so glamorous and impeccably dressed, would ever slack off sometimes?

Before Amane could finish looking around the room, Shiina seemed to notice something. After letting out a cute "Ouch!", she quickly grabbed her underwear, which was waiting to be washed, and hid it inside the bathroom.

"Tianyin, you didn't see anything you shouldn't have seen, right?"

Shiina smiled and looked at Amane.

Amane was a little curious whether Shiina would immediately blush and kick her out of the room if she answered that she had seen the pink and blue-and-white patterned clothes.

After thinking it over, Amane realized that although she really wanted to see a girl like Shiina blush, she also knew that Shiina was a very serious girl. If she really made her angry, she might end up on her friend blacklist. Teasing Shiina once would only bring her one moment of happiness, but if she kept teasing her, she would have countless moments of happiness. So Amane was quite clear about what to choose.

That being said... even if Shiina didn't blacklist her, Shiina doesn't usually have any friends anyway.

"Of course, since it's something I shouldn't have seen, I definitely didn't see it~ Well~ It's perfect that Hiyori can help me prepare the ingredients too, it will save a lot of time with Hiyori's help."

The moment the topic of saving time came up, Shiina seemed to have triggered some key words and immediately turned around to pick up the ingredients to wash and do some simple processing, as if she had completely forgotten what had just happened.

Seeing this, Amane could only shake her head with a wry smile. She knew that Shiina's saving time wasn't about saving preparation time so she could eat a delicious dinner faster, but rather about using the saved time to read.

Dinner was being prepared, but it wasn't too late yet. After the two finished eating, Shiina might have to go to the library, so Amane could only speed up her work.

Horikita usually takes care of all three meals at Amane's place. Of course, this is partly because Amane is too lazy to cook, but more so because Horikita wants to prevent Amane from cooking and turning the daily menu into a meat-based meal. In addition, Horikita strictly supervises Amane to prevent her from being a picky eater, so Horikita works tirelessly to cook every day. But even so, Horikita still physically punishes Amane for being a picky eater.

With Shiina's help, Amane prepared a very lavish meal in a very short time. Shiina's housekeeping skills far exceeded Amane's expectations. In addition to processing the ingredients, Shiina was quite adept at frying, stewing, and boiling.

Shiina's fried egg was especially beautiful, even Amane was ashamed of herself. However, the next second, Shiina was very upset because Amane took her lovingly fried egg and used it to stir-fry tomatoes.

However, thanks to the efforts of the two, a sumptuous feast that Shiina had never seen before was laid out in front of her.

"I'm starting!!"

Just as Tianyin picked up a fried shrimp and put it in her mouth, she heard a rapid knocking at the door.

Startled, Shiina picked up the chicken wing that had fallen on the table and looked distressed, glancing at Amane.

Shiina thought that if someone was knocking on the door at this time, it was probably looking for Amane. Usually, if someone wanted to see her, they would go to the library. In her memory, no one had ever knocked on her dormitory door on their own initiative.

"I'll go take a look."

Amane sighed, slowly making her way to the entrance while munching on a fried shrimp. She had originally intended to peek through the peephole or security door to see which bastard was disturbing her good time, but when she thought that the other person might be looking for Shiina, she simply opened the door.

As soon as the door opened a crack, Tianyin's arm was grabbed by the other party. A petite girl tried to drag Tianyin out of the room without saying a word, while saying incomprehensible things.

"Hiyori, you're still in the mood to eat? I just saw the news that Amane got confessed to at the movie theater!!! And the guy was even a first-year! That idiot even goes after first-year girls, he's a pervert!! Let's hurry over, you've always had a crush on her, if she gets confessed to by those first-years this time, you won't have a chance to date Amane anymore. Come on, let's go... Huh?"

Ibuki, head down, tugged at Amane's arm for a long time. When she saw that Amane didn't budge, Ibuki was surprised that Shiina had become so strong, and the feeling of her arm was also strange.

Realizing something was amiss, Ibuki saw the shocked expression on Ishizaki's face as he came with her. She then slowly shifted her gaze from Ishizaki's chest to his face.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mio, but didn't you just mention me?"

Chapter 31: Black Loot