So now Ayano had a new problem… Great.

"Amai…" she mumbled as she racked her brain. Who was she anyways? She was the cooking club president. While they weren't in the same class, she remembered her as a kind, yet distant girl. She seemed to be withdrawn from her surroundings outside the cooking club, and in the cooking club, she was a master cook. Everyone loved her and desperately wanted to be her friend, even if most of it was because she had a habit of cooking special foods for the birthdays of her friends.

She didn't know her like she knew Osana. Osana and her had been in the same classroom. She had spoken with her in the past. All she knew about Amai were things that she had seen out of her peripheral vision. She needed assistance.

She picked up her phone and texted a number.

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Info-Chan, or Tomoko, as only very few people knew, wasn't pleased with this turn of events. She had intended to exploit Ayano's murderous tendencies for other, more personal reasons. Alas, Ayano had proven herself to be smarter than she had thought, choosing to take the path of wisdom rather than violence. It would not do. She should learn not to underestimate opponents.

Sighing in frustration, Info-Chan picked up her phone. She had a select few cronies from around school, ones that were too close to her family to feign ignorance about who she really was. They had a symbiotic relationship. Info-Chan would supply them with juicy gossip and dark secrets, making them school celebrities of some sort. In return, they would keep Info-Chan's secret and supply her with daily news from the school. One of her most useful cronies, for example, was Musume Ronshaku. Musume was always a reliable source of information, even if she did exaggerate things most of the time. How else would she know about Osana and Taro?

Her phone chimed.

"Perfect timing." She thought as she glanced over at a text from Musume. There's word around school that Amai Odayaka likes Taro Yamada it said. It also contained a few comments about how Taro was unremarkable, and that she didn't understand why girls would like him so much.

Info-Chan smiled. That one was a well-kept secret. It was just the thing that only daughters of select families, like the Najimi and Odayaka families, would fall for him. In this school, everyone and everything was connected. Osana's uncle was an executive for Saikou's top metal supplier. The Odayaka family were known to be landowners in addition to being prominent bakers. They sold land to Saikou here and there. And Taro, well… He was on a completely different level. Info-Chan doubted that even he would know who he really was. No one would dare to talk about it to him, much less to anyone at school. This would mean certain doom for anyone who knew.

So how did Info-Chan know? Her father's journalism documents were in her hands. He had been a very prolific man indeed. Resourceful too. If Japan ever knew what was in these documents, all hell would break loose.

Info-Chan intended to make that very thing happen for her own sweet revenge. Nothing more and nothing less.

As if fate was on her side during this train of thought, she received another text, from a certain girl that she loathed with all she had.

"Tell me about Amai Odayaka." It said. Pure and simple.

Info-Chan smiled, which morphed her face into an eerily snake-like appearance and eagerly supplied Ayano with what would be the darkest secret Amai Odayaka had. It was something when Ayano, as cold and indifferent as she was, recoiled in disgust at the news.

Perhaps this time… Info-Chan thought, She'll give me something to work with.

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Ayano didn't really know what to do with this news. Like before, killing was the absolute last thing on her mind at the moment. It was only a last resort, even if she was itching to do it.

In a bored manner, she flipped between television programmes. She stopped on what appeared to be two women talking.

"I have loved him for all my life…." The first woman was saying with tears in her eyes. "Please, don't get in our way."

The next woman swallowed, fighting back her own tears. "You've done so much for me, I don't think I can. Please take care of him…."

Ayano switched off the television. She had found her new idea.

Next day at school, she tried to ask her friends about Amai surreptitiously. Most would say the same things. She was kind, she was a good cook, her favorite color was yellow… She was also absent from school a lot. Of course, with the piece of information Ayano had, this made a lot of sense. She got the feeling that no one ever bothered to delve too deep with Amai. Everyone seemed content with the basic information they had, never bothering to try to get to know better, since she was already too nice to everyone around her.

Ayano was surprised when Amai turned up at school that day. She watched her closely. Her arm appeared to be in a makeshift sling, she seemed pale and honestly, quite out of it.

She followed her to the cooking club, intending to sign up and ask how she felt, but something else happened that sent her in a rampage.

Senpai poked his head through the door of the club and asked Amai if she needed any help with the carrots she was about to cut. To this, Amai blushed deeply and stammered an affirmative reply. Senpai took the knife from her and gently cut the carrots, watching Amai's reactions to make sure he didn't make a mistake.

Ayano balled her fists and forced herself to wait until Senpai left the room. It would not do if she went in and acted weirdly around both of them. Finally, Senpai finished cutting the carrots and left the room. Ayano went in soon after.

"Hey Amai…" she said in a kind voice that she had picked up from television, "How are you feeling today? Is your arm okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Amai said, wincing. "I had to make this sling at home because…. Because the emergency room wasn't open!" she stammered, a bit too forcefully. Ayano saw as clear as day that she was lying.

"Hmm…" Ayano said, inspecting her arm. They had been educated in first aid class on making a proper sling from medical materials. If she could steal some from the nurse's office and fix her arm up, she knew Amai would be grateful.

"Alright, hold on. I'll bring something to fix your arm."

Before Amai could say anything, she darted off to the nurse's office.

She peeked her head around the corner to see the nurse was on the phone, with her back turned against the door.

"Yeah, I'm getting married in a few weeks! Oh, of course I've chosen a substitute. Remember Muja Kina from college? Yeah, she's a bit clumsy but she's good at her job. She's going to be at Akademi while I'm on my honeymoon. We've already filed in her paperwork…"

The nurse trailed off, gushing about her wedding. Her focus wasn't in the room. Ayano darted inside quietly and gathered bandages, and a solid piece of wood for her splint. This took about 5 seconds as all the items were in the same place. She sneaked back outside and ran to Amai.

"Okay Amai, I think there's something wrong with your splint, so I'll make a new one." Without waiting for her answer, she gently removed her cloth sling and spotted the problem. The broken part of her arm wasn't secured properly. It was moving against her whenever she tried to walk or do anything else. She secured it more firmly against the wood she brought, and wrapped it up in the bandages, hanging her sling from her neck like before.

Amai gazed in wonder. "Thank you so much Ayano! This one feels much better!"

"You're welcome." Ayano said. "If you don't mind, may I join the cooking club? I know my way around a kitchen."

"Sure!" Amai beamed. "We'd be happy to have you."

Ayano signed the list and left for class. She smiled. Phase one of her plan was over, but there was still a lot more that she had to do.

She glanced again at Info-Chan's text. It was only 5 words long, but enough to get Ayano disgusted.

"Amai's father sexually assaults her." It said.

Well, he wouldn't anymore. Not if Ayano couldn't help it. And then Amai wouldn't have the heart to pursue her Senpai.

AN: Hey guys! As you can see, the next rivals are more detailed and slower paced. Obviously, these aren't canon as I do not own Yandere Simulator and I don't know what Yan Dev has planned for the characters, but I'm trying to make everything make sense on my own. I have a quite a few excellent plot twists and surprises up my sleeve. You're going to LOVE THEM! Please rate and review, it really makes me happy and makes me want to keep writng!

Thanks for reading!