"Hey, Amasawa... you can come in."

"Okaaay! Ayanokōji-senpai~! Excuse me for intruding~!"

Right now... I, Ichika-chan, am visiting Kiyotaka-senpai’s room.

And on top of that, it was the man himself—Kiyotaka-senpai—who invited me here.

Under normal circumstances, people might call a situation like this a romantic flag.

But in the case of Ichika-chan and Kiyotaka-senpai right now, it’s probably safe to assume that’s not the case.

Right now Kiyotaka-senpai is staring at me with a sharp gaze, his face expressionless as he tries to probe something.

'I’ll definitely earn even a little of Kiyotaka-senpai’s trust here... And if I can make him realize that I’m more capable than Karuizawa-senpai...'

For that reason... I need to answer his questions carefully.

"Amasawa, there’s something I want to ask you."

"Yes! What is it?"

"What exactly are you?"

'Hng...'

Whoa!!

I ended up directly receiving the killing intent released from Kiyotaka-senpai’s expressionless intimidation.

'This is bad... the amount of killing intent... an ordinary person would have fainted instantly...'

Aside from White Room students, the only people who could probably endure this are Ryūen-senpai, Sakayanagi-senpai and Kōenji-senpai.

"What do you mean? I’m Ayanokōji-senpai’s junior~?"

"You don’t need to play dumb. No one from the same middle school as me should exist in this school."

How persistent...

He could just ask directly, 'Are you a White Room student?'

"Hmm... if we’re being precise... rather than middle school... it might be more accurate to say... I’m your junior from the white room~?"

The moment I said that—

Kiyotaka-senpai suddenly threw a right straight at me faster than the eye could see.

Although I was surprised by his sudden move, I instinctively dodged and created distance between us.

'Is he... testing my ability? It doesn’t seem like he’s anywhere near serious...'

All of this happened within just one second.

In response, I quickly closed the distance.

I aimed a powerful kick at his leg—

But it was actually a feint.

In the brief moment his attention shifted, I used the opposite hand and fired a stomach blow toward his solar plexus.

However, Kiyotaka-senpai caught it instantly.

Then he immediately locked my wrist.

An ordinary person would writhe in agony from that intense pain.

But Ichika-chan is different.

"Yaa!"

Using my free hand, I immediately grabbed his head.

Then, leaning my body backward with force, I threw him behind me.

But as expected of Kiyotaka-senpai.

He stood up without showing any sign of pain and immediately took a stance, preparing for my next attack.

'As expected of the masterpiece... it doesn’t look like he’ll let me win easily...'

Even while thinking that, I launched a right hook at him.

Then followed with a series of jabs.

But he continued blocking them with minimal movement.

But you know what?

That was exactly what I expected.

While he was focused on blocking the punches, I targeted his footing and delivered a knee strike.

Finally, I managed to land a proper hit on Kiyotaka-senpai!

Taking advantage of the slight disruption in his balance, Ichika-chan immediately followed up with a full-power knife-hand strike aimed at his neck.

But Kiyotaka-senpai barely managed to catch my hand.

Apparently, during the tiny time lag between my knee strike and knife-hand attack, his arm had regained enough freedom to block it.

"Haa..."

"..."

At first glance it might look like we’re evenly matched.

But that’s not actually the case.

I’m already feeling out of breath from fatigue.

Meanwhile, there isn’t even the slightest sign of that from Kiyotaka-senpai.

In fact, it’s doubtful whether he’s even fighting seriously.

'At this rate... I’ll lose from running out of stamina...'

Perhaps because of that anxiety and fatigue—

When Kiyotaka-senpai launched his counterattack and moved behind me, I noticed it just a moment too late.

‘Ah... this is bad!!’

By the time I realized it, it was already too late.

Kiyotaka-senpai grabbed my body and threw me forcefully toward the back of the room.

"Gwah..."

By coincidence—or maybe luck—I landed on Kiyotaka-senpai’s bed.

So the damage wasn’t that serious.

But my body still hurts.

If Kiyotaka-senpai had been using about 50% of his strength earlier, then when he threw me just now it felt like he used around 80%.

After all, the speed and force of that throw were on a completely different level from before.

"It seems, Amasawa... you’re more capable than I expected."

Kiyotaka-senpai muttered while looking down at me.

"Haa... haa..."

"But you should stop here. As you are now, you can’t beat me."

Meanwhile, I couldn’t even get up from the bed due to fatigue and the pain in my body.

'Of all things... I never thought the day would come when I’d lie on senpai’s bed like this...'

Influenced by the comfort of Kiyotaka-senpai’s bed and the exhaustion from earlier...

I ended up falling asleep right there on his bed.