Before going to meet with Rantaro, Tenko decided to tell Kirumi about the meeting, as well as see if she had discovered anything else interesting.

She sent a message via Monopad, and after getting a response, went to meet with her next to the school building.

"Do you have any thoughts about Kaede's proposal?" Was Kirumi's question after Tenko told her what had happened.

Tenko had already expected a question like that, and so was already prepared to answer "It is definitely something that would be a big help in keeping everyone alive, but it can also be abused pretty easily." She started "I don't know Kaede enough to know if she would do that or not, but regardless, I think it would be better to keep an eye on things just in case."

"A very rational approach." Kirumi praised "And also, it's interesting that Kaede mentioned Angie."

"How so?" Tenko asked.

"Because while you were away, Angie actually came to talk to me." Kirumi explained.

"Oh?" Tenko was interested "What did she have to talk about?" She asked.

"A lot of things." Kirumi said with a smile "She was very interested in you, for example." She nodded "Which isn't really anything strange."

"I... guess not?" Tenko said, not quite understanding Kirumi's vague tone.

"Since she was trying to get information from me, I decided that it was only fair for me to return the favor." Kirumi continued, in a more normal tone "She learned about a few of the things you deduced in regards to safes, but I found out that she has gotten Gonta as a subordinate."

Tenko's eyes widened in astonishment "Wow... That's really amazing." She couldn't help but say.

"After that, I think she realized that I wasn't going to say anything easily." Kirumi continued her story "So instead she gave me something weird."

"Weird?" Tenko did the appropriate interjection.

"It was this thing." Kirumi produced something that looked like a card with a small screen on it.

Tenko took it and gave a check "It's definitely weird." She agreed "Did Angie say something when she gave you this?"

"Only that it would be 'useful'." Kirumi replied "Maybe it has something to do with her talent, but I can't be sure."

"The use will probably show itself some time, then." Tenko decided "How are things going with your mission, then?"

"Almost done." Kirumi said.

Tenko nodded "Then I guess I should go and see what I can do for Rantaro." She frowned "I just hope he isn't too annoying."

Kirumi put a finger to her mouth, suppressing a smile "I'm sure you can deal with it. I'll send another message when I'm done, okay?"

"Okay."

And Tenko sent a message to Rantaro, asking where he was.

+0+

Rantaro asked her to meet him at a garden on the west side of the grounds. Tenko remembered that there was a safe on that place, and got the idea that perhaps that had been the safe Rantaro failed. That was something she should ask him.

The place wasn't very far from the school building, so Tenko got there quickly. Rantaro looked exactly the same as the first time she had met him, except that there seemed to be a tenseness in his shoulders she hadn't seem before.

That was expected, of course. Considering his current situation.

"Oh, Tenko. You're here." He said after seeing her.

"I'm here." Tenko replied simply.

Tenko didn't exactly like the current situation, but she had dealt with men a few times during her career. She could do that.

"Before anything else," She spoke before he could say more "I would like you to give me a complete report of everything that happened ever since you decided to challenge one of the safes. Including your reasoning behind every choice."

"A complete report?" Rantaro seemed doubtful.

"Yes. Each and every single detail might be a crucial point, so leave nothing out." Tenko assured him.

"Alright. Let's see..." Rantaro sighed "I suppose I should start with what my individual objective was." He navigated the screens in his Monopad and showed it to her "'solve the clue of the twelve clothing parts', which is a very vague objective, so I was going around, taking a look at the safes when I got to this one, and one of the rewards was 'Ribbon of Amara'." His expression changed to a deep frown "Amara Amami is the name of one of my sisters, and considering that the object mentioned 'twelve clothing parts'... You understand what I thought at the time."

Tenko's eyes widened. That was... certainly something. And it had disturbing implications in regards to the style of the game.

"I couldn't let anyone else get that, so I ended up accepting the mission without even thinking." Rantaro said, with another sigh.

"I can imagine how you felt, but you should know that the same missions have different rewards for each of the participants." Tenko said "But also, could I see the records in your Monopad for a moment? I want to know what was the exact wording of everything related to the mission."

"You can even see something like that?" Rantaro asked, surprised.

"Yes." Tenko confirmed "It's in the items menu, under the information section."

Rantaro nodded and examined his own Monopad, quickly finding what Tenko had mentioned.

"Task history, huh..." He muttered, before handing the Monopad to her.

Tenko looked over what was there. And there actually wasn't much to see. There was the usual initial puzzle safe opening (it didn't mention what the hint gained was, though), and then several task checkings before getting to the first other task that was actually accepted. The exact wording was:

'Safe #42. Type: Task. Reward for Completion: Ribbon of Amara and 10000 Monopoints. Time Allowed: 8 Hours. Punishment for Failure: Monopoint Amount Locked to 0. Open?

Task Accepted.'

"Monopoint amount locked to zero..." Tenko muttered. There were a few things this could mean, and none of them were good.

She kept reading.

'First Task: Collect two items with a combined value of at least 6000 Monopoints. Second Task: Achieve a new record on Game Safe #36. Third Task: Produce a piece of Special Accessory. Fourth Task: Successfully perform an item trade with another player.'

"One of each type..." Tenko muttered to herself.

From there on, there were a few other tasks registered, before the message 'Time Out. Safe #42 Task Failed. Punishment Applied.' before another sequence of task checkings occurred, except that this time, most of them ended with the message 'Safe Unavailable. Player cannot earn Monopoints at this Time.'

Upon seeing that, Tenko looked at Rantaro and spoke "I can see why you'd have trouble with that punishment. Most safes include Monopoints as part of the reward."

He nodded and sighed.

"So..." She started to speak "Help me understand the way things went. Since the second task had a specific target, you decided to go for it first."

"Yeah." Rantaro agreed "It was basically a dumb version of Tetris, called Pyramids. I managed to win the first time I played, but it took two more tries to beat the record."

'So, winning and beating the record are two different concepts in that game. There should be something important to that.' Tenko thought, as she waved for him to keep going.

"I got four thousand Monopoints for beating the game the first time, and I got a few Materials for beating the record." He continued "Materials are the things needed for me to produce clothes in my lab, so I thought I was going on the right track."

"So, the special accessory you needed to make was a piece of clothing, and the items you receive are based on clothing, to keep within the theme of Ultimate Cosplayer." Tenko noted.

He nodded "After that, I went to try and find another quick task I could do to get at least 1500 Monopoints, because with that, I would have enough to simply buy two items from the store to finish the first task."

"And that was the puzzle Safe #53." Tenko noted.

"Yes." Rantaro confirmed "The reward was 2000 Monopoints, so I thought it wouldn't be that hard. And I was right. It was just a 12 X 12 Sudoku variation, which I managed to solve in half an hour."

Rantaro then sighed deeply as he kept speaking "However, when I went to the store, I discovered that I couldn't use it while in the middle of that task.

"So I went all around again, looking for Tasks that would give me items as reward. I got quite a few materials but the task wasn't finished." He sighed "I think it was because since those items were only valuable for me, their monetary value would be zero.

"Still, since I would need Materials for creating the accessory, I decided that it hadn't been a waste of time to do all of that. I went back to the grind, and managed to get two 'Advantage' cards, which cost 4000 Monopoints each.

Tenko had her own ideas about that, but Rantaro didn't seem to be in a mood conductive to discussion.

"With that, another Task was complete. So I went around trying to find someone who would trade with me. But that was difficult, and most people weren't willing to do it." He shook his head "Eventually, I managed to trade with Shuuichi, but by that point, four hours had already passed from when the Task started.

Tenko was starting to see how deceptively difficult that challenge was.

"I went back to my Lab to create the Special Accessory, but then it turned out that I needed specific materials to make it, and while I had most of them, two in particular were still missing, so I went back out to hunt for them.

"And after completing two more safes to get what I needed, another hour was gone, just like that." Rantaro sighed, his composure totally lost by that point "And the biggest joke of all? When I went to make the accessory, which was a scarf, I discovered that despite being able to sew it in seconds, in order to give the effect and make it truly 'complete', I had to wait for a timer, a timer of four hours."

Tenko winced. Rantaro Kept talking.

"And the effect the scarf eventually got when it finished, far too late, was something that would have helped a lot on the other objectives." Rantaro spoke bitterly "It allowed the user to check the basic information of all the safes they had checked on the past three hours, without needing to go around checking them again."

With that, Rantaro fell into silence. Tenko looked at him and thought.

It really didn't matter that he was a man, because Rantaro was someone who truly needed help, and she was going to give it to him. So she turned her mind towards the problem.

Tenko could think of a few possible ways of going around the punishment to complete the Objective anyway. However, that was all they were, possibilities, things that would need to be tested.

It seemed far too difficult and complicated. That would make the punishment way harder than it should have been, based on the listed reward. So, there should be an easier way. And as her thoughts reached that point, an idea formed in her head.

"Rantaro, did you check Safe #42 again?" She asked.

"Huh? Why do that?" He was surprised.

"Because it gave you the punishment, so maybe it could relieve you of it, too." She replied.

Nonplussed, Rantaro went to do so, and after passing his Monopad over the safe, his expression became one of absolute astonishment

"'Reward for Completion: Lifting of Punishment and Ribbon of Amara'." He quoted "'Time Allowed: 4 Hours. Punishment for Failure: None.

So, Tenko's conclusion had been right. The game still followed logic, but she expected that there should be some sort of catch to it. That was confirmed when Rantaro (after Tenko waved him to go forward) accepted the mission.

His face changed into an expression of resignation.

"I knew it was too good to be true after seeing that there was no punishment for failure." He spoke, looking at Tenko "Instead of four Objectives, there's eight."

Tenko wasn't fazed "And they're all the same scale as the previous ones?"

Rantaro nodded.

"Then there's no problem!" Tenko declared, gesturing with her right hand "With some thinking, I believe this is far from impossible!"

Rantaro seemed somewhat surprised by Tenko's sudden change. That was often the case and she was used to it.

"Are you serious?" He asked, hope creeping into his voice.

"Yes." Tenko nodded "Lift your head, Rantaro Amami, for I promise to save you from the jaws of doom!"

At that moment, Tenko thought back to her master. Yes, he really would want her to save the others, so she was going to do her best to achieve it.