Kaguya-sama Wants Me to Surrender

"I've finished reading." Amamiya Natsuki set down the questionnaire, frowning. "This game is truly dangerous."

"Shameless! Hypocritical!"

The beast girl gnawed her teeth in anger. "You humans love to lie!"

"Hmm?"

Amamiya's eyes turned sharp. "Fujiwara, cut another bunch of leeks and bring them here."

The beast girl bowed her head, defeated but furious. "…I'll remember this grudge!"

"Everyone is free to share opinions." Shinomiya Kaguya crossed her arms. "Fujiwara, you first."

"Ahem."

Fujiwara Chika clenched her fist, coughed twice, and said clearly: "The vengeful spirits in each ward differ, as do their personalities. Some can communicate; others are dangerous."

"A player said he got a skill from a blind box that detects important items. He sensed something valuable on the spirit in his ward but dared not ask or take it."

Fujiwara glanced at the beast girl ghost. "He also said Miss Cow carries important items."

"I'm not a dairy cow!" The beast girl bared jagged teeth. "Look at my teeth—you'll see I'm carnivorous!"

Asuka Kujo muttered, "But you ate a lot of leeks just now."

"It's all your fault, despicable humans!"

"Sorry."

Amamiya fixed the beast girl ghost with a hard look, stretching out his right hand. "Hand over what you've got."

"I don't have anything." The ghost snapped viciously.

"If so, there's nothing we can do." Amamiya sighed, pressing her down on the bed. "Fujiwara, help me strip her clothes. I've always wondered—when people are born, they wear nothing. Why do ghosts have extra clothes?"

"We'll study that carefully today."

"Miss Wraith, cooperate, please."

The ghost knelt on the floor, upper body pressed to the bed, voice trembling with anger. "Ahhh! Shameless humans! Let me go!"

Fujiwara hesitated. "Taking off a girl's clothes..."

Amamiya sighed. "She just said you're fat."

"I'm not fat!" Fujiwara's face hardened, but she nodded determinedly. "Alright, I'm coming."

"Kujo, Rikka, come help." Amamiya said. "Strength in numbers."

Asuka came over, dazed.

Is it really wrong to press a tearful ghost onto a bed and strip her?

Why do I feel guilty all of a sudden?

Just as Fujiwara began pulling at the ghost's denim shorts, the beast girl broke.

"Stop! I'll give it to you!"

"You gave it up so fast?" Fujiwara pouted. "I still wanted to see where your tail is."

Amamiya helped the ghost sit up.

"It's in my chest." The ghost's teeth clenched, eyes misty. "Let me go, I'll give it to you."

"No trouble." Amamiya's gaze lingered on her deep chest. "Leave this to me."

All the girls glanced simultaneously.

"Natsuki-san," Fujiwara crossed her arms, "That's a crime."

If you want to talk about crimes, forcing a ghost to eat grass in her ward makes you all accomplices!

"I'll get it."

Without hesitation, Fujiwara plunged her hand into Miss Ghost's chest to search for props.

"So... big... my hand's stuck."

"And so soft."

"It's cold, no warmth at all. If it were warm, it'd be so comfortable to hold while sleeping."

You're overthinking. If it were that big, it might smother you in your sleep.

"I just understood what 'land of milk and honey' means..."

That's ancient Canaan, not somewhere you want to explore!

Moments later,

"I got it."

Fujiwara pulled out her hand, revealing a small black fragment suspended in the air.

"What's this?"

Amamiya examined it closely but could only conclude: "It's a piece of debris."

Unable to identify its purpose, Kaguya Shinomiya collected the fragment and said, "I counted—there are only eighteen questionnaires total."

Indeed, at Kaguya's request, Amamiya and others had also filled out questionnaires.

Amamiya's was simple:

[Roommate: Miss Sadako]

[Danger level: unknown]

[Attributes: shy, socially phobic, teardrop mole near eye, makes people want to bully...]

"Is something wrong?" Fujiwara asked.

"The number's off." Amamiya raised an eyebrow. "There are twenty wards on the fourth floor."

Jiujo guessed, "Two players might be trapped in a ward, unable to leave?"

"At first, one unlucky player was knocked out early by a nurse with a needle," Amamiya explained. "The last ward's info is unknown."

Kaguya groaned. "When the corridor lights come on, we'll check the ward information sheet at the nurse's desk."

The darkness lifted.

The corridor brightened.

Amamiya released the ghost and, with several girls, walked to the nurse's desk.

"Kaguya and I will go." Amamiya whispered. "You stay here."

We only need two for the ward list check.

"Be careful," Fujiwara covered her mouth. "Don't make noise."

Amamiya nodded, quietly accompanying Kaguya.

The swollen-faced nurse was still dazed, uninterested in players coming and going so long as she wasn't disturbed from slacking.

"Found it."

In front of the nurse, Amamiya gently lifted the ward info sheet he'd seen before—and found something wrong.

Wrong quantity.

Each ward has two occupants: a player and a ghost.

Player names were nicknames assigned by the game, like Fujiwara Chika as [Cancer of the Earth], Rikka as [The Evil King's True Eye User], and others like [Red Lotus of Hellfire], [Really Not Obsessed with Primary School Students], etc.

But the spirit's identity was just black squares, unreadable.

At the bottom of the list, the last ward showed only black squares—no player name.

"So... there's no player in the last ward?"