三つ: Currency
(3: Currency)

A message notification beeped and echoed throughout the dark bedroom, and a hand emerged from the covers of a bed to tap the phone's screen.

Tired groans followed – not that it was surprising in any way, because it was so early in the morning that Info-chan's alarm clock didn't even go off yet. It's only a Tuesday – well, the first Tuesday of the first school week, but she was so drowsy that she almost wanted to sleep in. Sometimes, she thought to herself, she felt like ending this entire Info-chan charade, really. You've seen enough of the world already. School's boring, university would be even more boring, and after university, work will be just like school and university, and retirement is just a meager compensation of spare time after 40 or 50 years of work.

But the red-haired girl grabbed her phone and swiped the screen only to see the name 'Aishi-san' hovering above the thread.

'Do you seriously want me to take panty shots if I need your help?'

Groan.

Her slow thumbs keyed in a reply while she herself was still very addled with sleep. 'Of course. I accept nothing less. I have other clients too, you see. They're very picky.'

It took Aishi-san a few seconds to reply back. 'How do I even do it?! It's just as the rumours said – you're disgustingly perverted.'

'Well, it's up to you to take those shots. I suggest you join the Photography Club to improve your aim. Exact center of the shot, okay?'

'If I don't give you the shots?' came Aishi-san's question.

'No information.'

There's nothing else from Aishi-san right after that, thank god. Info-chan doesn't get out of bed right after, having chosen to bask in the comfort of her own covers, but she does eye a cassette tape from across the room, sitting obediently right next to her laptop computer. It's only one tape – she found it lying around on the school grounds a day ago, and when she played it, she didn't know what to make of it.

For short, it didn't make sense. It only spouted something about some guy wanting to interview students at a local high school, presumably Akademi. Info-chan couldn't get enough information from one tape alone, but she kept it.

She got out of bed and took the tape, sat back down on her bed and looked at it.

What a sad, pathetic man.

Remorse – it's something rather alien to her, coming from someone who had repeatedly manipulated and exploited other people for her own ends. She looked at the tape in her pale hands, thinking over and over again about the very existence of the person that was Info-chan. She gave birth to Info-chan, a conniving, intelligent, perverted, self-sufficient girl who has the information everybody needs in just a tap of their phones...

...and here she is, a normal girl, once the entire Info-chan persona disappears.

A double life is sometimes painful to lead, but she feels that she barely exists anymore, mainly because Info-chan is a lot more interesting, a lot more infamous, a lot more legendary than silly old her. She's nothing compared to her other self, and it sometimes feels sad, because the more Info-chan emerges, the more she has to kill her true self to bring Info-chan to life.

Two people can't live at the same time in this unfortunate situation. That'll make one a bit mentally disturbed.

She can't bear it.

But Aishi-san can.

Aishi-san isn't normal, no matter how she pretends to be. Aishi-san can change how she behaves and stay that way for days, weeks, months, if that's what it takes. Aishi-san can very well get along with Info-chan, but Aishi-san can never get along with the real her.

Putting on and discarding the persona of Info-chan is as easy as wearing her glasses and taking them off, but then again…

...it was also as painful as shedding her own skin to don another one.

"Oh, it's you! Good morning!" Aishi-san laughed, smiling over at the red-haired girl.

The two girls were parking their bicycles right at the entrance of their school, and at the raven-haired girl's sudden forwardness, Info-chan flinched a bit. The bespectacled girl's hands, if anything, gripped at her bicycle handles tightly, reflecting her bundle of nerves. It's a wonder that Aishi-san still looked so chipper despite waking up very early in the morning, but then again, Aishi-san's full of wonders to begin with.

"H-Hello, A-Aishi-san," she ended up mumbling, taking her schoolbag as calmly as she could.

"Hey, you don't have to be so formal with me," Aishi-san offered, keeping her friendly smile. Info-chan didn't dare to try and see whether it was genuine or not, because no matter what the result was, it would develop a very irrational fear inside her. A fear of what, exactly? she thought to herself. Aishi-san's a bit unhinged in the head, she knows that, so what's there to be afraid of?

"Even so..." Info-chan managed. "...I-I'd like to be respectful."

Aishi-san gets her own schoolbag and beckons Info-chan to follow her into Akademi's entrance with a tilt of her head. "We're in the same year, aren't we? You look like you're in my year - oh, that means you don't really have to be so formal, then!"

Info-chan's legs keep up with Aishi-san's pace, much to the redhead's shock. "Formal?"

"Call me Ayano-chan," came the simple, cheery reply.

Ayano-chan.

The very notion of her calling Aishi-san that made Info-chan want to call her that and vomit, and she didn't know why.

The ponytailed girl almost reaches her shoe locker before suddenly stopping, and much to Info-chan's horror and surprise, Aishi-san twitches horribly. In all his glory, Yamada-senpai walks right past Aishi-san, not even noticing the girl that's behaving extremely strangely upon being cut off from her path. Aishi-san's fixation on Taro Yamada wasn't just dangerous - it was horrifying, the things that he does to her without him knowing. She idolizes him like a god, like air itself - without him, Aishi-san would rather be dead. Aishi-san can't breathe without him, and Yamada-senpai doesn't know.

"...Aishi-san," Info-chan said, shaking the girl's shoulder. "Aishi-san."

And then, something else happened.

A flash of orange was what Aishi-san and Info-chan saw next, and glaringly polka-dotted stockings decorated the legs that walked towards Yamada-senpai's rather feeble stature. Osana Najimi changed her shoes, then started talking to Yamada-senpai - on one time, she playfully slapped the back of his head, causing Aishi-san to lunge forward slightly out of instinct had it not been for Info-chan's hand on her shoulder restraining her.

"Aishi-san," the redhead said again, this time in a firmer tone.

Firm.

Ha.

What a joke. She's too unsettled to be firm.

Thankfully, Aishi-san looked at the bespectacled girl, looking as if she'd never even acted the way she did earlier. She clasped a hand to her mouth, then distanced herself away from Info-chan a while before bowing in apology. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me! I won't do it again!"

Ayano glared at her phone as if it was something to be loathed entirely.

It's lunch break and she's staring at her phone wordlessly, completely mystified over the fact that the day would come when she would start having pictures of schoolgirls' panties saved in her phone. It's something a guy would do - but this is Info-chan's so-called currency, isn't it? Ayano walks out of the classroom easily enough, and the small sitting area at her right was slowly getting crowded with students.

Panty shots.

She's about to be a pervert for information.

Ayano had never felt so disgusted in her entire life.

How was she to go about this? Info-chan obviously had a lot of information about Najimi or anyone else for that matter, but the anonymous girl was certainly making Ayano pay for her services. She sees Miyu and Hinata talking to each other freely, laughing and discussing about the latest plans for Akademi's upcoming school festival. The girls were in a literal circle, so it's near impossible to take even a single shot.

'Hey, how many panty shots do you need?' Ayano texted her perverted benefactor, getting some canned green tea from the vending machine.

The reply was surprisingly fast: Info-chan had sent her a list. A nice PDF file to her email did the trick.

NOTE: THIS INFORMATION WILL BE INSTALLED TO YOUR DEVICE VERY SOON.
YOUR PATIENCE IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.

PROVIDE STUDENT INFO: 5 PANTY SHOTS
DAMAGE STUDENT REPUTATION: 5 PANTY SHOTS
IMPROVE YOUR REPUTATION: 5 PANTY SHOTS
PROVIDE DARK SECRET: 8 PANTY SHOTS
SEND STUDENT HOME: 10 PANTY SHOTS
PROVIDE SPARE UNIFORM: 10 PANTY SHOTS
PROVIDE WEAPON: 10 PANTY SHOTS
DELAY POLICE: 20 PANTY SHOTS

*PLEASE NOTE THAT PANTY SHOTS CANNOT BE RECYCLED, UNLESS A STUDENT WEARS DIFFERENT PANTIES.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR GENEROUS PATRONAGE.

Ayano ended up gawking at the list, feeling extremely defeated.

'I can't believe this.'

Info-chan texted back. 'Good luck. :)'

This isn't a joke, this isn't a joke, this isn't a joke.

After-school cleanup duties were done, and every student in Akademi were fixated on their shoe lockers, talking to the person beside them a little. Najimi's right there, looking at a promotional poster on the school's bulletin board, and Ayano sucks in a breath for courage.

But really, what courage?

She's about to take a shot of Najimi's panties.

Slowly, very slowly, Ayano crouches down and crawls as silently as she could, takes out her phone and sets it to silent mode before swiping the screen upwards to take a picture. Exact center of the shot...the button's right there...

Ayano paused.

Polka-dotted panties stared right back at her, covering Najimi's very unflattering behind.

She takes one shot, slowly gets up and much to her horror, the redhaired girl she said hello to that morning stared at her with her mouth open. It's embarrassing, it's so embarrassing, and Ayano feebly raises a finger to her own lips to signal silence.

The girl does the same, but makes a gesture that screams: 'Get up from there - she's not going to look at that forever!'

Ayano silently stands and walks cautiously to her red-haired friend, following her to the corridors of the girls' and boys' bathrooms. They waited a few seconds before releasing a huge sigh of relief, and Ayano, despite herself, starts laughing.

"W-What colour are they?" Info-chan laughs, not because of the entire exchange, but because the situation was indeed rather hilarious.

Ayano almost choked on her laughter. "Pink and polka-dotted."

A/N: Patiently waiting for the next update. I can't wait to find out what other things Yanderedev has in store for us.