Pondering this, Kagura pulled out his phone to search for the name "Sakurajima Mai."
"Damn, no wonder she seemed familiar—she's a famous actress! That explains her odd expression when I didn't recognize her."
Kagura, utterly indifferent to celebrity culture, finally recalled where he had seen her so often.
The answer was everywhere: on television, in shopping malls, and across countless streaming platforms displaying her image.
To Kagura, the beauties on screens were mere illusions, intangible compared to the real, embraceable ones—like his devoted maid, Hayasaka Ai.
Hours later, back home after dinner and a shower, Kagura, who never bothered with homework, maintained grades just above passing without ever needing remedial classes. His musical talent ensured a smooth path to higher education, leaving teachers with little leverage over him.
Thus, free from academic burdens, Kagura lounged at Hayasaka's desk, legs crossed, playfully disrupting her work.
"Master Kagura, if you're not doing homework, might I suggest practicing the piano?"
Hayasaka brandished a compass, deftly removing the protective cap from its needle and waving it toward him.
The glinting point hovered menacingly close to his backside.
Kagura, feeling a prickling unease, coughed lightly and slid off the desk, leaning against her chair. "Hayasaka, do you know anything about the school's ghost stories involving 'Senpai Mai'?"
"Oh… you're curious about that? Well, I suppose I know a thing or two."
Hayasaka continued drawing perfect circles, effortlessly multitasking.
"Tell me."
"Like every school with its 'Seven Mysteries,' Sobu High is no exception. Let's see… the most famous is probably 'Hide-and-Seek,' which everyone but you likely knows. Then there's 'The Ritual,' 'The Whispering Window,' 'The Cursed Stone,' 'The Stairway to Another World,' 'The Girl in the Mirror,' 'The Sixth-Year Cherry Blossom,' 'The Nonexistent Classroom Number Four,' and so on…"
"That's more than seven, isn't it? You just listed eight."
Kagura jotted them down on his phone, his thoughts drifting to Sakurajima Mai, whom he'd met today. Was she investigating 'The Girl in the Mirror'? That, alongside 'The Nonexistent Classroom,' were the only two stories he knew tied to "Senpai Mai."
"Isn't it common knowledge that the 'Seven Mysteries' always exceed seven?"
Hayasaka's response was strikingly nonchalant, as if anticipating his question.
"Fair enough… But was there really a student named Sakurajima Mai who died at Sobu High forty years ago?"
Kagura searched his phone again, but combining "Sakurajima Mai" with "Sobu High" only yielded results about the current celebrity, drowning out any trace of the past.
"While the name isn't certain, a girl did die in the old school building forty years ago… later dubbed 'Senpai Mai' in widespread tales. Are you planning to use this as a conversation starter with Yukinoshita? I doubt she'd be intrigued by such topics… By the way, did you see Yukinoshita today? I heard she went straight home after school."
"No, I didn't see Yukinoshita, but I did meet Sakurajima Mai. Quite the coincidence, right?"
Kagura snapped his fingers, chuckling with a grin.
Chatting privately with a beauty of her caliber naturally lifted any man's spirits.
"Sakurajima Mai, Class 3-C. Measurements: 86-52-88, C-cup. Height: 165 cm, leg length: 87 cm, weight from her last checkup: 50 kg. Consistently ranked second in her year since enrollment. A renowned Asian actress, debuting at six, but she retired from acting two years ago at sixteen for undisclosed reasons and hasn't returned. Personal assets exceed five billion yen. A true paragon of talent and beauty. Excellent taste, Master."
At the mention of Sakurajima Mai, Hayasaka rattled off her profile with encyclopedic precision, all while calmly drawing auxiliary lines on her geometry homework.
"No need to flatter me. I didn't even recognize her when we met."
"I find it odd too. I rarely see Senpai Sakurajima Mai at school, yet you, Master Kagura, managed to find her on the first day of term. Truly befitting a wastrel young master who's activated his playboy mode."
Having finished her diagram, Hayasaka tilted her head, her ponytail lightly nudging Kagura's back as she let out a sly "Heh…"
"Hey! What's with the 'playboy' jab? I'm just looking for a suitable marriage candidate…" Kagura began to retort but paused, rubbing his chin. "Wait, you said she's always second in her year? Who's first?"
"Kasumigaoka Utaha, Class 3-A. Perfect scores in every subject, every time. Measurements: 89-58-90, D-cup. Height: 168 cm, leg length: 88 cm, recent weight: 54 kg. On the surface, a flawless, exemplary senpai, but privately, a reclusive otaku like your sister, with no friends. A light novel author, she wrote Love Metronome. Personal assets: roughly three hundred million yen. Didn't you sponsor her once?"
Hayasaka continued her data recital without missing a beat.
—I am a cold, calculating data machine.
"Oh, her… Sounds like her figure's pretty impressive too…? Though, isn't she a bit heavy?"
The name jogged Kagura's memory. Over a year ago, after winning first place in the Chopin Piano Competition, a publisher called Fushikawa Bunko approached him to promote "Kasumishi's" Love Metronome, offering ten million yen.
Kagura's condition was simple: "Keep the money, but I want to meet Kasumishi in person." Money was no object to him; he was curious about the author because his sister Eriri was obsessed with her book. He wanted to ensure she wasn't filling Eriri's head with strange ideas.
So he met her, discovering she was indeed a remarkable beauty. Later, during multiple media interviews, he casually endorsed her by holding up Love Metronome when asked about his hobbies, claiming he was reading it.
The book skyrocketed to the top of national light novel sales, reprinting tens of thousands of copies.
"That's because her measurements are slightly fuller than Senpai Sakurajima Mai's. Their figures are already near perfection. Please don't fantasize about a 165 cm, 40 kg girl with a D-cup. Alternatively, you could turn left, enter Miss Eriri's room, and indulge in 2D waifus with her."
Hayasaka, slightly irked, nudged his back again with her head.
"Relax, I know you're a B-cup. I don't mind."
With that, Kagura turned, placing both hands on Hayasaka's chest, gently kneading.
"This has nothing to do with my chest! How did we even get to this topic? Honestly, you're…"
Hayasaka tensed at the mention of her chest, her ears flushing red.
Her smaller size always made her a touch self-conscious.