The next day in class, most of the students had gathered around Ritsu, excitedly talking about how she had gained her independence the previous night.
"So that's what happened?" Kataoka asked.
"Akira-kun, that line — 'How dare you not know my name? Don't you know who I am?' — was great!" Maehara laughed.
Nagisa said,
"The hacking and digging through their secrets was good too!"
Then Karma grinned mischievously.
"So anyway… that means Karasuma-sensei is technically Ritsu's dad now, right?"
Everyone turned to look at Karasuma with strange expressions.
Karasuma himself looked slightly traumatized.
Koro-sensei tried and failed to stifle a laugh.
Karasuma snapped immediately.
"Don't laugh! Don't act like this isn't your fault!"
Koro-sensei waved his tentacles innocently.
"Nuruhuhuhuhu~! Don't blame it all on me, Karasuma-sensei. Student Ritsu made her own decision."
Ritsu, who had been listening quietly, suddenly put on a sad expression on her screen.
"Is it wrong for me to do this, Karasuma-sensei?"
Karasuma let out a long, defeated sigh.
"…Whatever. I don't care anymore."
Akira, who had been leaning lazily against Erika as usual, suddenly spoke up.
"Alright. From now on, let's celebrate yesterday as Ritsu's Independence Day!"
All the students of Class 3-E cheered loudly.
Even Koro-sensei joined in enthusiastically, while Karasuma could only sigh even deeper.
Kayano leaned in excitedly.
"So, Ritsu, can you hack into anything?"
Ritsu answered cheerfully,
"I can hack into most PCs as long as they are connected online."
Kayano's eyes sparkled.
"Then can you book movie tickets before anyone else?"
Ritsu smiled.
"I can book them as soon as they are released."
Isogai asked next,
"Can you hack into an online store and buy all the discounted items before anyone else?"
Ritsu nodded brightly.
"Yes, I could easily do that."
Karma grinned from the side.
"Oh? Can you hack into our principal's computer and change all the files to surprised Pikachu faces?"
Ritsu smiled awkwardly.
"It is possible, but… let's not do that."
Karma didn't give up.
"Then how about hacking into Akira's computer and finally seeing his secrets?"
The other students immediately perked up and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, good idea!"
"Everyone's been so curious about his backstory."
"We need his secrets!"
Ritsu looked visibly uncomfortable.
"Sorry, but that is beyond my current capabilities. All of Akira-kun's devices have powerful countermeasures against hacking. If I tried, I would not leave unharmed."
Everyone turned to look at Akira.
Akira nonchalantly shrugged while still leaning against Erika.
"Well, what can I say? Hacking me is like trying to burn the sun or drown the sea… not impossible, but not by current human capabilities."
He said this while leaning even more on Erika, who got annoyed and leaned away, nearly making him fall off.
Koro-sensei suddenly clapped his tentacles together.
"So, Ritsu-kun, can you help me order some limited-edition sweets before anyone else?"
Before Ritsu could answer, the entire class shouted in unison,
"No, Koro-sensei! That's cheating!"
"Yeah, it's cheating!"
"You're already Mach 20! Why do you need Ritsu's help too?!"
Ritsu looked at the chaotic class and smiled brightly.
As the students continued grilling Koro-sensei, Irina walked into the classroom and asked with a smirk,
"Hey, Karasuma. I heard you're the AI student's daddy now. Is it true?"
Karasuma snapped immediately.
"Shut up!"
---
After school ended, Akira and Erika walked home together.
Akira kept glancing at her awkwardly, clearly wanting to say something.
Erika finally sighed.
"Alright, out with it."
Akira hesitated for a second before asking,
"Can I hold your hand while we walk?"
Erika looked a bit surprised, then gently took his hand.
"Why are you still flustered by this? Haven't we already held hands multiple times?"
Akira shook his head.
"Not that… What I want is the exclusive privilege of always holding your hand whenever we walk. So… is it okay?"
Erika's cheeks flushed slightly, but she didn't pull away.
"It's just hand-holding… so okay."
Akira beamed and immediately clung to her side like a koala.
Erika sighed fondly.
"I only said holding hands is allowed."
But she didn't stop him.
Just then, Akira's phone rang.
He took it out and saw it was a video call from Ritsu.
Akira looked mildly annoyed at the interruption, but answered anyway.
Ritsu's face appeared on the screen. Taking in the scene, she smiled.
"Oh my, am I disturbing your time alone?"
Akira started,
"Yes, you are—"
Before he could finish, Erika pushed him aside, snatched the phone, and asked politely,
"Why are you calling, Ritsu?"
Ritsu explained cheerfully,
"To facilitate information sharing among students, I want to download my data onto everyone's cellphones and turn it into a Mobile Ritsu app. But your phone is kicking me out, so I called to ask for permission."
Akira took the phone back.
"Fine. I'll grant you permission. You can't go through most of my apps without permission anyway."
After he approved it, a new app called Mobile Ritsu downloaded onto his phone.
He did the same for Erika's phone, which he had already upgraded to be far more powerful than a normal device.
Ritsu's avatar appeared on both screens with a cheerful animation and party poppers bursting behind her.
"Installation complete! Congratulations!"
Erika asked curiously,
"So does this mean we can take her anywhere we go?"
Ritsu smiled brightly.
"Yes."
Akira tilted his head.
"So… wanna come to my house?"
Ritsu looked genuinely surprised.
"Really?"
Erika nodded.
"Yeah. We don't have friends over very often… well, only Koro-sensei comes to visit."
Akira added,
"Yeah. I can even show you my lab."
Ritsu hesitated for a moment.
"Is it really okay?"
Akira nodded.
"Yeah. Only Koro-sensei visits that place. I don't mind showing it to you."
Ritsu's expression brightened.
"Then… I would love to."
---
Back at home, Akira and Erika gave Mobile Ritsu a tour, eventually leading her down to the basement lab.
Ritsu's eyes widened as she scanned the high-tech equipment.
"There is no information on these devices anywhere. Where did you get them?"
Akira replied casually,
"I made them myself."
Ritsu went silent for a moment before asking,
"What powers these things? I do not think your electricity bill would survive powering all of this."
Akira grinned.
"All of them have built-in arc reactors— cold fusion reactors."
Ritsu's voice filled with shock.
"What? You have cold fusion reactors? Did you make them yourself?"
Akira struck a dramatic pose.
"Yes. The power of the sun… in the palm of my hand."
Ritsu was stunned.
"If you revealed this to the world, I am sure you could make a lot of money and increase the—"
Akira interrupted her.
"Nope. Releasing something this advanced into the world right now would cause more panic and disturb world peace. Besides… I don't like sharing my things with people I don't like."
Erika sighed beside him.
Ritsu also let out a small sigh from the screen.
Then she asked,
"Can I look at them more closely?"
Akira shrugged.
"You mean you want to go into them and take a look? I don't mind. You can't access the really important ones anyway."
Ritsu said excitedly,
"Then I will be back."
She downloaded herself into some of the devices.
After a moment, she asked,
"I have a question. Why did you make ten titanium handcuffs in different styles using the super 3D printer? Do you have many prisoners here?"
Both Akira and Erika turned bright red at the same time and screamed in unison,
"It's not like that!"
---
The day passed as Akira and Erika desperately tried their best to change the subject away from the handcuffs and somehow survived the day.
The next day.
Bitch-sensei's class started as usual.
She began with a conversation in English.
"Oh sexy guy, wow, it's a miracle."
"Wow, really?"
Then she switched to Japanese.
"Everyday chit-chat is actually quite simple. I'm sure you all know that one person whose conversations mostly consist of 'maji great' and 'maji bad.' 'Maji' here can be expressed with the old standby 'really.' Kimura, you try."
Kimura stood up nervously.
"Re-rearry."
Irina crossed her fingers into an X.
"Nope. Awful. Your L's and R's are a mess. The pronunciation of L and R doesn't jibe well with Japanese people. I understand what you mean, but it still feels wrong."
Kimura sat back down, defeated.
"Oh… okay."
Irina continued with a wicked smile.
"Don't run from your incompatibilities… master them! I'll be checking your pronunciation regularly from now on, and if you screw up your L's and R's… I'll punish you with a French kiss in public."
Then her eyes landed on the back of the class, where Akira was peacefully sleeping. She got angry and threw a piece of chalk at him.
"Get up, you brat!"
Akira caught the chalk in his sleep and muttered drowsily,
"Bitch-sensei? Is class over?"
A vein throbbed on Irina's forehead.
"Brat, don't sleep in class!"
Akira, still half-asleep, replied,
"But I already know all languages. Besides, Bitch-sensei's pronunciation has an accent."
Irina looked ready to fight him.
"What did you say, you brat?!"
Erika immediately intervened.
"Calm down, Irina-sensei. Akira just said something stupid while half-asleep. Don't take his rambling to heart."
Irina calmed down slightly and sighed, turning to Erika.
"Oh, Erika. You're such a good girl, simply wasted on him."
Then her eyes narrowed as if she had thought of something.
"Anyway, I've always wanted to ask… how many languages do you know?"
She asked the same question she had asked Akira, trying to guess where Erika was from based on the languages she spoke. She had tried it on Akira, but it hadn't worked, so now she tried it on Erika.
There's no way even she also knows all languages, right?
Erika answered a bit awkwardly.
"I know Japanese and English well, but I also know Romanian and Hungarian."
Irina raised an eyebrow.
"Those aren't very common languages to learn. Is there a reason you know them?"
Erika replied,
"My grandfather is from Romania, and my grandmother is Japanese. He taught my mother the languages he knows, and my mother taught me too."
Irina nodded.
"Oh, I see."
Thinking to herself, maybe they have some connection to Romania.
Then Kayano chimed in excitedly.
"Oh, Romania! It's the country where vampires are from, right?"
Karma grinned.
"Yeah, and Erika-san is already a superhuman. Is she a vampire?"
Erika looked a bit flustered.
Nagisa tried to reason things out.
"But vampires can't go out in sunlight and don't appear in mirrors, right? And they have other weaknesses too. Erika-san doesn't have those."
Then Akira, who was still sleepy, muttered without thinking,
"Yeah, she is. She always sucks me dry every night."
The entire class fell silent.
Then Erika exploded.
She rushed over and put Akira in a chokehold.
"Stop talking! Don't say anything stupid!"
Now the entire class erupted into gossip.
"Oh my, what does he mean?!"
"'Sucked dry,' he said…"
"What are they doing every night?!"
"Akira-kun, you traitor!"
Even Koro-sensei, who was there for some reason, turned completely pink and quietly took notes with one of his tentacles, fully invested in the gossip.
Irina shouted,
"Shut up, you brats! Go back to your seats!"
But the class had already descended into chaos as usual.
---
As Bitch-sensei's class ended, the students split up during the free period.
Some went to read under the shade of the trees, while most scattered across the school grounds to play and relax.
Akira and Erika headed into the nearby forest to train.
Akira was helping Erika with her new "Blood Breathing Form" — a fast movement technique meant to help her keep up with opponents who were much faster than her.
"You need to push your leg muscles in that way, not that way," Akira said, demonstrating the stance.
Erika frowned.
"In what way?"
Akira answered seriously,
"Like this."
He instantly disappeared in a blur and reappeared several meters away.
"Do it just like that."
Erika sighed as she watched him. Trying to follow his movements felt impossible.
"Whatever. I'm tired. Let's take a rest."
Akira immediately rushed back to her side.
"Okay!"
They sat down together under the shade of a large tree.
Erika leaned back against the trunk and looked out toward the schoolyard, where the rest of the class was playing and Irina was, for some reason, trying to stab Karasuma.
She glanced at Akira.
"Is Irina-sensei trying to assassinate Karasuma-sensei?"
Akira's phone lit up. Ritsu's face appeared on the screen.
"It's Koro-sensei's idea," Ritsu explained. "Apparently it's a mock assassination match between Irina-sensei and her teacher."
Akira nodded.
"Oh, it's that…"
Ritsu tilted her head.
"It's what?"
Erika waved it off.
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, do you think she could successfully assassinate him?"
Akira thought for a second.
"Well, she is a pro, so…"
Just then, in the distance, Irina slipped and fell while trying to stab Karasuma with her anti-sensei knife.
Akira continued without missing a beat,
"…probably."
Ritsu looked at Akira curiously.
"Oh right, Akira-kun. The last time I checked your computer, there was a file about the moon—"
Akira immediately cut her off.
"It's nothing. Don't say anything."
Ritsu went silent.
Erika narrowed her eyes and leaned in.
"What are you hiding?"
Akira looked away.
"Nothing…"
Erika leaned in even closer, her face only inches from his.
"Tell me the truth. What about the moon?"
Akira stood up abruptly, trying to run away.
"It's nothing! It's nothing! Just the broken moon!"
Erika screamed after him,
"Stop right there and tell me!"
She gave chase.
"Stop running away!"
Akira called back while running,
"I'm not running away! I am heroically advancing in the opposite direction!"
Erika shouted,
"That's the same thing!"
In the end, while desperately chasing him through the forest, Erika somehow instinctively mastered the fast-movement technique.
---