"Are you serious?" sputtered Natsuki. "Why would you agree to keep an eye on the girl that's been terrorizing the school?"
"Because Fuyu asked me too?" Shujinkou answered as he scratched his right cheek. "Honestly, I couldn't really say no when she's in President Mode…"
"Still…" confusion and curiosity swelled up in Shujinkou as Natsuki glared at him. "Dummy, don't you realize what that means?"
"Yeah. I'm possibly a target now…" Shujinkou sighed.
"At least you have Mali's word that she'll stop pranking everyone," Sayori assured him.
"Like it would really be that easy," Natsuki replied, rolling her eyes.
Natsuki's words would remain in Shujinkou's head for the rest of the day and even the next morning.
While waiting for homeroom to begin, Shujinkou sat at his desk staring at the Student Council necklace Fuyu had given him last semester.
"How am I going to handle this?" he wondered aloud. "Mali said that she would stop pranking others and I want to believe her but… I can't get over the uncomfortable feeling I got from her yesterday. Plus, I've seen a lot of scenarios where a younger person would feign innocence to lower someone's guard."
Shujinkou sighed as he continued to ponder the dilemma he faced. "In the end, I don't really know anything about her so I can't really judge her."
In what felt like no time at all, the morning classes passed by and there has been no words of any pranks that have been pulled. When the time of lunch finally arrived, Shujinkou walked out of his classroom and journeyed to the first year hallway. Using the info Fuyu had supplied him, he effortlessly found Mali's classroom and peeked inside.
It was at that point where that uneasy feeling from yesterday started to creep its way into Shujinkou again. Mali had an entire section of the classroom to herself.
"Here goes nothing," he said as slowly approached Mali.
As he inched his way closer and closer, he noticed the first-year student was reading a book titled, "Advanced T-"
"Senpai?" before he could finish reading the book's title, his attention was immediately diverted to Mali's curious face. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just-"
"You're not here to check up on me are you?" she interrupted. "I've been good all morning."
"I know. I was just wondering if you wanted to have lunch together," Shujinkou proposed.
"Senpai wants to have lunch with me?" an innocent smile stretched across her face as she eagerly jumped on her feet. "How can I say no?"
Mali wrapped her arm around his, led Shujinkou outside and plopped down on the first bench she found.
"Hey, Senpai, what kind of club are you in?" Mali asked.
"Huh?" Shujinkou replied, surprised by the sudden question.
"You said that you had to get back somewhere yesterday. So what kind of club did you have to get back to?"
"Oh. I had to get back to the Literature Club."
"Literature Club? I didn't know the school had a Literature Club," Mali's eyes then scanned Shujinkou from head to toe. "Senpai doesn't seem like the literary type."
"Still?" Shujinkou weakly chuckled as he considered what he just heard. "I've learned a lot about literature since I joined and I still seem like I'm not even close to being the literary type?"
"I bet there's a lot of cute girls there. I bet that's why Senpai joined."
"She doesn't even know about the others and she still reached that conclusion…"
"Senpai's such a womanizer!" she laughed.
"Actually, Mali, I didn't even want to join in the first place," Shujinkou began to explain.
"But the cute girls changed your mind, I know."
"No, that's not it at all."
"So you admit you find the girls there cute."
"Huh?! What no! That's not what I mea- I mean-!" Shujinkou scrambled to find a way to respond to such an observation.
"Senpai's so cute when he flustered," Mali giggled, flashing him an innocent smile the entire time.
The young man couldn't help but look away as he scratched his right cheek. He wasn't sure whether she was teasing him or not.
"Oh yeah, Senpai. You won't believe it but I saw a super-rare bird when I scouting the school grounds," Mali suddenly said.
"Really? What kind of rare bird?"
"It's an Orange-bellied parrot. They're mostly found in Australia, so I couldn't believe that I saw one here. Want to see it?"
"Well…"
"Come on, you should see it! It's almost as colorful as a rainbow!"
"Well, I guess I could take a look."
Shujinkou proceeded to follow Mali around the school into the neighboring village of trees.
"Maybe I should have asked Kiyoko to come," he thought aloud. "Birds like her."
Suddenly, Shujinkou felt something wrap around his foot and pull him off the ground. Complete shock circulated through him as found his world has been turned upside down.
"It's amazing how little anyone actually looks up or down, huh Senpai," a mischievous smile flashed on her face as she approached the bound Shujinkou. "The boys in the locker room were the same.
She then removed his student official necklace from around his neck and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"W-What are you doing?" Shujinkou nervously asked.
"This is that special necklace that lets you go around the school unabated right?" Mali answered.
"Oh no…" a sense of dread filled Shujinkou as he began to put together the true intention for this prank.
That dread steadily grew bigger as he watched the young pranker look through his phone.
"So much storage taken up for nothing…" she said under her breath. "Ghost data."
Mali then shrugged at the conclusion and placed Shujinkou's phone just out of his reach. "Well, I got things to do so… See ya, Senpai."
Shujinkou silently watched Mali disappear from sight and thought," I feel like I walked right into this one…"
He then tried to reach for his phone, but as he expected, he couldn't do it.
A dejected sigh flew out of his mouth as he considered the position he was currently stuck in. "Sneaking through the jungles of the Soviet Union, swimming through a lake filled with crocodiles, narrowly avoiding a pit hidden by leaves, progress, progress, sneaking around until I'm strung up by a rope around my ankle, my first alert and guards start shooting at me, cut the rope with my knife and try my best to not use lethal ammunition, hide under a nearby house, blow up the food and ammunition sheds, return to the previous area then fall into a bottomless pit. Game Over. Time Paradox."
He then remained silent for a minute before screaming, "HELP!"
For the next 6 minutes, he's done nothing but call for help. But with each passing minute, his hopes that he'll be found dwindled.
"I'm going to have to wait until the sport clubs have to practice, aren't I?" he lamented.
But just as he was about to lose hope, he noticed a student passing by.
"Hey, can you help me?!" Shujinkou desperately pleaded.
The student turned their attention to him, not even fazed by his current predicament.
"Rei?" he could feel tears well up in his eyes as the silent girl approached him.
Her eyes trailed up to the rope restricting his legs, then followed the line to a nearby tree branch. Rei proceeded to slowly untie the rope from the tree branch and gently lower Shujinkou to the ground.
"Thanks, Rei…" a sense of relief filled the young man as he freed himself from his binds.
An eerie silence followed Shujinkou's gratitude as he stood on his feet. Disappointment quickly seeped into him as he once again found himself at a loss for words. But before the awkwardness could reach unbearable levels, the sound of the school bell ranges, alleviating that concern.
During the next class break, Shujinkou searched throughout the school for Mali, finally finding her sitting on a small ladder.
"Oh, I was wondering whether you'd catch up or not Senpai," Mali waved.
"Mali… That wasn't funny what you did earlier," Shujinkou sternly replied.
"I don't know. I found it pretty funny," Mali nonchalantly replied as she turned and looked into the window behind her.
"Mali… I need you to give that necklace back. It's not something someone should play around with."
"Not now, Senpai. This is getting interesting."
"What do you mean?"
"Look," Mali motioned Shujinkou closer as she moved aside. "Or don't. But just be quiet."
Against his better judgment, Shujinkou climbed up the small ladder and peered through the window.
"Ah-!" he had to quickly cover his mouth to keep himself from screaming. But he couldn't help reacting in such a way; seeing a locker room filled with almost naked female students would do that to anyone.
Suddenly, he noticed a few flashes from behind.
"Hey, Senpai," Shujinkou looked to his right and found Mali presenting his phone to him. "Catch."
She tossed the phone in his hands just as the window to the locker room opened. All the eyes directed at him, seething with anger, caused his mind to go blank with fear. Frozen with fright, Shujinkou could not even mutter a word of defense as he was quickly surrounded by an angry mob. All he could do was think about what they would do with him.
"Shujinkou?" through all the angry eyes, Shujinkou saw a face that inspired hope and fear.
"Monika…" he weakly called.
"You know this guy, Monika?" one of the girls asked.
"Yeah. What's going on?" Monika queried.
Shujinkou's heart sunk as he was forced to listen to the girls describing him as a "perverted stalker photographer". There was no way that he could explain that he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. No one would believe him.
Suddenly, Monika gently took his phone and searched through his photos. "I don't think Shujinkou took these photos."
Shujinkou's eyes lit up as she presented the photos to the other. To his surprise, they prominently featured the back of his head. The school idol then wasted no time in explaining how he was more likely a victim then the perpetrator.
With the situation defused, the girls returned to the locker room as Monika sat next to a relieved Shujinkou. "Thanks, Monika."
"No problem," Monika assured him. "So, is Mali the one who took these pictures?"
"Y-Yeah…" Shujinkou sheepishly admitted. "She got me twice in one day and she is not holding back."
"I see. I guess what Natsuki predicted was inevitable, huh?"
"Yeah… I don't know what I'm going to do Monika. I mean I should obviously tell others what Mali is doing but, the thing is, I haven't really had much of a chance to talk to her. Everything that happened today happened so fast."
"It's almost like she doesn't want to give you time to try and convince her otherwise," a small smile crossed Monika's face. "She clearly has a strategy, so it's time for you to employ one of your own."
"You don't mean that I should fight fire with fire, do you?" Shujinkou worriedly questioned.
"No. What I mean is, so far Mali has quickly established to be the dominant force in the relationship between you two, which is understandable if you liken the two of you to Chaos and Order. Chaos almost always has the preemptive strike while Order is trying to find a way to stamp out the Chaos.
Mali has made the preemptive strike, so now it's your turn to strategize and counterattack in a way that achieves your goal."
"I get it. You're saying that I should come up with a plan that can reverse that dynamic and get her to listen to me."
"Exactly."
"But, to even do that, I would not only have to come up with something to keep her from staying one step ahead of me, I would also have to keep her from running away from me. Something that can keep her in one place for more than 5 seco- I got it!"
"That fast?" Monika marveled at how quickly Shujinkou developed a plan.
"Well, more like I'm borrowing a plan," he chuckled as he scratched his right cheek. "I'm taking a page from Sayori's book."