Meanwhile, Shijunana was surrounded by a bunch of other girls. During gym today, they had done sprints and high jumps. Shijunana had managed to run a hundred meters in twelve seconds and had easily cleared a two-meter crossbar. Those incredible results put her on the level of women’s world record holders.
With that, the serious students and the jocks all started looking at Shijunana differently.
“You’re amazing, Shijunana-san! How can you jump that high?”
“Join the track team! We could make nationals! No, wait, we could go global!”
“I know you said you went overseas... Did you play sports there?”
Despite all the excitement around her, Shijunana remained expressionless as she thought about each question. She provided a simple, brief answer or said she couldn’t go into any details. Ruka couldn’t help but think that the new student was giving everyone a chilly reception.
“I’d really like to get along with you better, Shijunana-san,” Chinami Hayami said in her adorable voice. She had already finished changing. Unlike Ruka and Meiri, Chinami wore her uniform blouse properly and kept her blazer nice and neat. She was a perfect honor student, and everyone could see why her photo had ended up in their school’s pamphlet last year.
“Stop lying,” Shijunana said, her voice echoing curiously through the changing room.
Every single girl stopped what they were doing. Most of them were still changing, so they just froze in their underwear.
That included Ruka. Wh-What the heck is she saying?
“Hayami, you have been lying for some time now. What was your true reason for approaching me?” Shijunana ignored how everyone was in shock and continued. “Did the teachers issue an order? Are you suspicious of my background? Do you wish to learn my techniques?”
What? Girl, please. You’ve got an amazing body with legs for days. Your face is super pretty, and your voice is crazy cute. Who wouldn’t want to talk to you?
“Unfortunately, my techniques are not something I can teach you. They take time to learn, and you need to be compatible in a special way, so it is best that you give up now.”
Shijunana was blunt, her words weren’t kind, and she just kept going.
“Th-That wasn’t...what I... Ugh...sniff...”
Yeah, the class rep is, like, made of anxiety. She’s definitely gonna start crying...
Ruka’s group or the jocks probably would’ve shot back at Shijunana somehow, and the subculture girls would’ve faked a smile and changed the subject. But that wasn’t the case for Chinami Hayami. She was the class rep because she was such an earnest person. That made the teachers rely on her too. And because she was like that, everything other people told her hit her hard, right in the chest.
“Sniff... Waaah...”
“Class rep, are you okay?”
“Come over here, Chinami.”
As Chinami hung her head and bawled her eyes out, a group of girls gathered around her. They placed their hands on her shoulders and formed a wall between her and Shijunana.
Shijunana stared back at them—
Here comes the ice queen, Ruka thought.
—and looked totally confused. “Ah... I was simply asking... I didn’t mean to hurt you...”
You seriously didn’t mean to make her cry?!
The girls surrounding Chinami gave Shijunana some intensely hostile looks, and the other girls were giving off faint waves of disgust. All the anger in the room was starting to feel like legit air pollution. Nobody had done anything yet, but they were headed for an all-against-one beatdown at this point.
Welp, time to pitch off... Um, pitch in, Ruka decided.
“Yo, Shijunana-san! What’s with all that awful stuff you’re saying?” Ruka called out. She made sure she was loud enough to draw all of the attention to her. That was the reaction she was expecting for being an outsider stepping in. She was involved, now—if she backed down, this situation was gonna keep snowballing.
Looks like I’m gonna have to put on a show, but... There’s a limit to how cool I can act standing in my underwear.
Ruka shrugged that thought off. “How do you even know she’s lying?” she asked.
Pretty sure Shijunana said that because she has her guard up around Chinami. Or maybe she’s not into getting flattered by someone she met, like, today. Anyway, she’s just saying that...
Or so Ruka thought.
“The movement of her eyes and the speed of her breathing—subtle changes in countenance allow me to see through lies.” The look on Shijunana’s face was dead serious.
“There’s no way that’s—” Ruka stopped herself. She had only met Ginka Shijunana a few hours ago. Without knowing Shijunana’s personality, there was no way Ruka could tell why she would say something like this. I don’t know enough to write Shijunana-san off just yet. With that in mind, Ruka shifted gears. “’Kay, then, my mom’s name is Tokiwa. How about that?”
“You’re lying.”
Shijunana’s response was so fast, it made Ruka gasp. She saw through the lie, like, instantly? Maybe she really is telling the truth.
“I know it is a lie, but I do not know her real name...” Shijunana murmured.
That brought Ruka back to her senses. She got one right. That’s all. Still too soon to believe her or call her a liar. Gotta keep testing her. “My friends are Meiri and Hinaru.”
“That one is true. It’s possible you have other friends, but you are indeed friends with those two.”
“I’m a D cup.”
“A lie. But larger or smaller...? From your reaction, your chest must be larger than that.”
“Crazy! Are you for real?!” Ruka was shocked. When she looked around the changing room, she saw that she was far from the only one feeling that way.
Ginka Shijunana can see through lies. As that fact sank in for the girls, the mood started to shift in a different direction.
Ruka turned back toward Shijunana again. “Fine. So, when you told her to ‘stop lying,’ what the heck was that supposed to mean?” Seeing through lies was one thing, but what Shijunana had meant by those words was a different story. If we don’t make that clear right now, the class rep’s not gonna stop crying.
With a brief glance at Chinami, Shijunana replied, “Hayami was lying about her own feelings. I sensed excessive stress as she interacted with me, and she appeared to be suffering from desperately forcing that down. As such, I wanted to learn her reason for getting close to me, then inform her that it would be best for her well-being to stop...”
“You were trying to look out for her?”
“Correct. I wished to tell her there was no need to oblige even if the teachers ordered her to do so and that it was unnecessary to investigate my background.”
As Shijunana looked away awkwardly, Ruka grinned. “So...you’re just crazy bad with words...? Bwa ha ha!”
Wow. She looks uptight, but she’s got a cute side too. Ruka relaxed her shoulders before glancing at the serious girls. “Well, I get you were looking out for her, but you gotta at least respect Chinami’s efforts a little.”
“Her efforts?”
“Like how she tried to get along with someone she didn’t really understand, or how she pushes herself to be a class rep for everyone’s sake. She’s gotta deal with all kinds of expectations from the teachers... That’s a huge burden. And, like, she tries to live up to all that... Anyway, Chinami works real hard, ’kay? Maybe I’m being a pain by saying all this, but I want you to at least acknowledge that much.”
As she listened to Ruka, Shijunana curled her lips inward. She didn’t seem to have any objections.
“Sure, it might be kinda rough at first. But you two might really click if you try. Writing off someone you just met is silly and a total waste. Gotta have fun, y’know?”
Ooh, I did pretty good there, huh?
As Ruka was busy singing her own praises, Shijunana nodded with a pensive look on her face.
“You are correct. It seems I was shortsighted...”
“Shortsighted?”
“I was a fool who did not give the matter enough thought,” Shijunana replied, her expression softening. “Could you tell me your name?”
“Me? I’m Ruka Moriki...”
“I see... Thank you, Moriki.”
“No worries.” Ruka shrugged and looked around.
All the tension in the changing room had vanished. The girls all seemed to understand this was just a case of Shijunana and Chinami both trying to be considerate but clashing by accident.
As Ruka stepped back, Shijunana turned her gaze toward Chinami. “Hayami-san, I insulted you by disregarding your kindness and courage. My deepest apologies.” She bowed, and Chinami stared at her.
Yup, yup. Shijunana-san apologized, and Chinami got to hear what she was thinking, so we can call it goo—
“Y-You say that now, but...but... Waaaaah!”
Um, I guess Chinami’s still gonna be Chinami...
After that incident, all the girls came to one conclusion. And of course, it didn’t take long for the boys to hear about what had happened and agree. Everyone now knew that Ginka Shijunana was serious trouble.