The rooftop was still a battlefield.
But the target had shifted.
Yuki's eyes landed on Hoshino, who had been quietly observing from her corner, eating lunch with perfect composure.
"Hey. Hey, Shizuka."
Hoshino looked up. "Yes?"
"You've been sitting there this whole time just WATCHING us destroy each other?"
"Observational research."
Riko's eyes narrowed. "She's been treating us like a documentary."
Hikari: "A nature documentary."
Yuki gasped. "We're animals to her!"
Hoshino's expression didn't change. "If the shoe fits."
That did it.
---
Yuki struck first. "Oh, you want to play that game? Fine. Shizuka, you once made a spreadsheet of everyone's birthdays in the Student Council. Color-coded. With gift suggestions."
Riko's jaw dropped. "What."
"AND she ranked them. By how much she liked each person."
Hoshino's composure cracked—just slightly. "That was a private document."
"PRIVATE RANKINGS ARE SOMEHOW WORSE!"
Riko joined in. "She also organized a committee to rate the school lunch menus. For three years."
Hikari: "Three years?"
"The data was comprehensive," Hoshino said weakly.
Kaito delivered the next blow. "She once tripped on stage during a speech and bowed to the wrong flag."
Yuki screamed with laughter. "THE WRONG FLAG! SHIZUKA!"
Hoshino's eye twitched. "That was one time."
"You bowed to the FLAG OF ANOTHER COUNTRY!"
"It was a mistake!"
Riko leaned forward. "Wait, wait—which country?"
Hoshino refused to answer.
Kaito: "She won't say because it's embarrassing."
"It's ALL embarrassing at this point!"
---
Hoshino's eye twitched again. Then something shifted in her expression.
The observer became the participant.
"You want to play?" Her voice was calm, but there was steel beneath it. "Fine."
She turned to Yuki. "You once tried to join the Student Council in middle school. You lasted three days. You quit because they wouldn't let you name the school mascot."
Yuki's smile froze. "That's—that's not—"
"You suggested 'Captain Crunchy-sama.' They rejected it. You cried."
Riko howled with laughter.
Hoshino turned to Riko. "You have a secret stash of romance novels hidden under your bed. With tabs. Color-coded tabs. By genre AND steam level."
Riko's face went crimson. "How do you—"
"Mei told me. She thought it was cute."
"I'm KILLING her!"
Hoshino turned to Hikari. "You once wrote a fan letter to a violinist. You never sent it. It's still in your drawer. I know because Kenji found it and told Aiko, who told me."
Hikari's hoodie went up so fast it was a blur.
Hoshino turned to Kaito.
Kaito met her gaze calmly. "You have nothing on me."
Hoshino smiled. Actually smiled.
"You once kept a diary in elementary school. Yuki found it. You wrote about how much you admired a certain girl who gave you a letter. You thought it was quite good for a book review. You also added a note that you don't read love novels."
Silence.
Kaito's eye twitched.
Yuki whispered: "He had a DIARY?"
"It had a lock. A tiny, useless lock."
Riko: "He wrote about a girl?"
"A certain girl who gave him a letter."
Hikari peeked out from her hoodie. "He admired her?"
"He said her writing was 'quite good for a book review.' And then felt the need to clarify he doesn't read romance novels."
Yuki was crying with laughter. "HE PROTESTED TOO MUCH! IN HIS OWN DIARY!"
Kaito said nothing. For the first time, he had nothing to say.
---
The war continued.
Forty minutes passed.
Roast after roast. Insult after insult. No mercy. No surrender.
Finally, they collapsed.
Yuki lay flat on her back, staring at the sky. "I can't... I can't move..."
Riko sprawled beside her, hair a mess, composure in shambles. "I've never... been so attacked... in my life..."
Hikari was curled in a ball, hoodie still over her face. "I need... a new identity..."
Hoshino sat against the fence, legs stretched out, head tilted back. Her perfect posture was gone. Her hair was disheveled. She looked almost... human.
Kaito sat in his usual spot, but even he was breathing harder than normal. His shirt was slightly untucked. A strand of hair had fallen across his forehead.
Silence.
Peace.
Then Yuki's voice, weak but curious:
"So... who won?"
No one answered.
Because honestly?
They all lost.
And they all won.
(End of Chapter 94)