The Premise

"It's about Yumeko Jabami."

Kira stopped walking.

Of course it was.

Everyone knew Yumeko Jabami by then. New transfer. Untouchable posture. Eyes that seemed to catalog people rather than greet them. She had dismantled a senior in poker club her first week and smiled while doing it. Rumor said she gambled for fun, not money, which made her either very rich or very dangerous.

"And?" Kira said.

Chad exhaled. "I like her."

That, at least, tracked.

"She doesn't care," he went on, too quickly. "About the usual stuff. Parties, cars, whatever. I've tried talking to her and it's like-" He gestured vaguely. "She's already ten steps ahead. Like she's waiting for something interesting to happen."

Kira raised an eyebrow. "And you think that something is me."

He hesitated. "I think that something is... what you do."

She turned to face him fully then. "Be precise."

"You sell brains," Chad said. "Not answers. Frameworks. Games. You think sideways. She'd notice that."