"Deram! Would you please hand in your assignment?" Professor Jethro called out.

"Yessir! Here is the 21,000 word thesis on the topic of "Logic in Mathematics"!"

"Eh?" He shuddered, "Y-You were only supposed to do 7k...?"

"Ah, apologies sir, but you seem to have forgotten that I had caused quite a scene last time. I was told to do three times the amount. Hence, 21 thousand words."

Left utterly flabbergasted for a moment, he then loudly slammed his table as he took the thesis to read through it gleefully, barely holding in his laughter. He seemed to have appreciated a diligent student dutifully doing his job, however the same could not be said for the other students, as I seemed to have inadvertently raised the bar a bit too high.

After that, Kevin mentioned he was off to buy some milk, so I had decided to go visit Jelena for a cup of coffee. The coffee place actually isn't all that far from the University, so it was but a leisurely stroll, in all honesty. Entering the coffee shop, I was appalled to notice my usual spot got taken. Though, the more interesting detail about that is the person seated there, and not the fact the seat was taken instead.

"Mademoiselle!" I called out to her, "Hello."

"Oh, M...monsieur! Are you here to unwind after your lectures?" She smiled back, "Please, have a seat!"

"Ah, uhh..." I didn't know how to respond.

"Come on, don't be shy!" She smiled before deflating a bit, "I-I'm not waiting for anyone, ehe... I'm here alone, ha-ha..."

"No, it is not that." I pointed to where her butt was situated, "It is just that, well... That is my spot, so would it be a problem to move?"

"O-Oh? Uhm, a-alright." She hastily moved aside.

"So, what brings you here?" I asked as I sat down.

"Well, to tell you the truth..." She scratched her cheek bashfully, "I actually only found out about this place back when I went to get you for your enrollment. I actually thought it rude to just enter and leave without ordering anything like I did back then, so I went back to get a brew from them. It was so good that I actually kind of became a regular, ehe!"

"Right you are!" Jelena plopped down our orders in front of us before we even made them, "Za damu Espreso, a za gospodina Kapucino. Izvolite!"

"Ah, izvolite!" Mademoiselle replied before whispering to me, "Psst, hey, that means "Thanks", right?"

"Not a clue." I shook my head, "But I am sure miss Jelena will not mind either way."

"Yeah, you're not wrong on that." Jelena grinned back, "It's not exactly right, but I wouldn't dare correct a regular!"

"Alright, then before you leave, I would like to pay up front." I reached into my pouch.

"O-Oh, I'll pay too!" Mademoiselle tried doing the same.

"No, I will cover the costs for today." I stopped her, "You have helped me out a lot these past few days, this is the least I could do."

"N-No, seriously, it's embarrassing to have someone pay the bill fully..." She protested.

"Ah, let him pay, already!" Jelena strongly patted me on the back, "It's a man's duty to pay the bill for the girl! Ain't that right, scholar boy?"

"Indeed it... is?" I noticed my pouch was considerably lighter than usual, "Huh? Judging by the weight, I seem to be down around 1956kB. I don't remember spending any money since the last time I checked..."

"Ah, looks like you glitched." Jelena shrugged, "But more importantly, tell me how you got such a specific number from just weighing the pouch like that!"

"Err, excuse me." I tilted my head, "I... glitched?"

"You've never heard of it before?" Even mademoiselle joined in, "Ah, I guess foreign currencies don't have that, huh? Basically, all bytes as a currency have their own specific address which they take up within The System. Thus, a byte or a series of bytes may sometimes "glitch" out of existence at random. Usually it's just a minor amount though, and it happens quite rarely."

"Yeah, whenever it happens to us at the shop, I actually consider it good luck due to the rare chance of it happening. What were the odds again?"

"0.01001101010001010100100101001100%, I think." Mademoiselle replied, as if unsure.

"How do you even remember such a long string of numbers?" I asked.

"You're one to talk." She pouted.

So wait, the money I got... vanished without a trace? And for no apparent reason, no less? Jelena and mademoiselle are treating it as a completely normal, albeit rare occurrence, which means I can at least rest easy in knowing I didn't get pickpocketed or something like that. The streets are safe, however I just can't bring myself to believe in something so illogical.

"I would like to investigate this in a more in-depth manner." I thought as I drank my cappuccino, "Ah, did you sugar this?"

"Ugh, my espresso's really bitter..." Mademoiselle stuck her tongue out.

"Oh, my bad, jebiga." Jelena sat down with us, swapping our coffees, "I might've gotten them mixed up. There, that's better."

Looking at the coffees each of us had drunk out of, we both awaited for the other to say something. Before long, Jelena read the room perfectly and silently swapped our coffees back, which seemed to have solved the problem. Mademoiselle drank my bitter cappuccino and I drank her sweetened espresso, but we at least didn't have to deal with the alternative. I personally don't care about indirect kisses and all that, since everyone shared a single glass back in prison, but knowing the mademoiselle, I'm sure it means something. She's saving herself for her destined soulmate, after all.

***

Paying the bill after we had drank our coffees, I had immediately thought to continue pursuing the mystery of this "glitch" the mademoiselle spoke of. Of course, the best lead I have on it right now is her, so let's hope she agrees to help me out on this.

"Hey, I do not feel like heading home just yet." I suggested as we walked out of the coffee shop, "Would you like to walk around the campus a bit more with me?"

"H-Huh?! A-Ah, sure...!" She seemed happy somehow, "Where would you like to go?"

Well, my answer is quite obvious when you think about the topic we were just talking about. The best place to visit while out with mademoiselle would undoubtedly be...!

"T-The..." She winced, "The arcade? How do you even know about this place!?"

"Hm? Kevin told me about it just the other day." I said as I went to the bowling alley section, "Here are your shoes, let us partake in some bowling fun!"

"B-Bowling, huh?" She seemed uncomfortable, "This seems very... unlike you, I guess. Are you a fan of bowling?"

"No, never played it." I replied as I threw the ball, "Hup. Oh, nice, I got a strike."

"Whoa! I wanna try too!" She got a bit more hyped after seeing me, "Wait a second! I need to put my shoes on first.

Slipping out of her normal knee-high boots she wears outside, fully revealing the pure white stockings underneath, she had slowly, carefully put on the long goofy looking bowling boots typically used in this section of the arcade. The sight was short-lived, though nice nonetheless. Taking the heavy bowling ball before wobbling over and slowly tossing it from her tummy using both of her hands to support its weight, the ball had obviously very little force in it, leading to an all too quick gutter ball.

"Aww, i-it's harder than it looks." She turned around, a tad embarrassed at herself.

"Do not worry, we are playing purely for fun." I said as I got another strike, "Oh, two in a row. Beginner's luck, mayhaps?"

Strike after strike later, and we were down to the last set. Mademoiselle had a slow start that mildly improved near the halfway point, leading to her current score being 58, whilst I was at 290. Just one more strike to go and I'll have a perfect game. Then, after that is where the real investigation begins...!

"Hup!" I threw the ball at the exact same angle and speed as the first one, "Nice! That is all from me."

"Geez, you sure this is your first time?" Mademoiselle inquired, "A perfect first game, huh? Super cool!"

"Thank you. You have improved a lot in just this short amount of time as well." I complimented her back, "Now come on. You get to pick a special prize from the gift shop if you get a perfect score."

"Oh, how nice." She smiled.

"I do not need anything, so follow me to the worker over there and pick out whatever you want."

"E-Eh?" Her smiled became odd, as if she wasn't sure whether she was happy or surprised, "T-Then I'll take you up on that offer. T-Thank you."

Happily trailing behind me, eager to get her present, she had already decided on the thing she most wanted. Pointing it out to the all but dead inside worker, she had picked out a giant dog plush that was half the size of her. I wondered why the dog exactly, as there were a lot more interesting and practical alternatives, but I chalked it up to just being a part of the woman's heart.

"I'll take this, then!" She grinned, already reaching out her hands to take the dog plush.

"Stop!" My Eyes shone White for a moment as I waited for a specific moment in the Sinus Wave to come, "Alright, take it now."

"Hm? Alright...?" She raised an eyebrow before grabbing ahold of the dog plush, only for a loud alarm to suddenly spring up just as she did, "H-Huh? W-What's happening!?"

"Sir, it appears you're not eligible for the "perfect game = free prize" promotion, as you do not have an arcade card registered." The worker suddenly donned a shit-eating grin, "If you wish to get your lady friend the plushie, you will have to pay out of your own pockets, I'm afraid!"

"Aww, shucks! What rotten luck..." Mademoiselle started returning the plushie, but stopped after she saw me take my pouch out and toss it on the table, "M-Mei...Monsieur!?"

"Yep, just as I predicted!" I smiled as I felt the pouch up, "It's 5,12 grams lighter than before. In other words...!"

"...The glitch!" She realized, "It happened to you again!"

And with that, the first piece of the puzzle was found. I had purposefully went to the arcade for two specific reasons. One of which was because arcades have the most amount of money on them at the same time, so I wanted to observe just how often the Glitch actually happens in real-time. Sure enough, it didn't happen once the entire time we were in here, meaning the rates that mademoiselle mentioned at the café do seem to hold up.

The other reason was to "Get the Glitch to occur to me a second time", because I wanted to see if my Sinus Wave Iro Ability accounted for it as well. I purposefully had mademoiselle "wait" before she took the free prize, because I wanted us to get the prize just as the Sinus Wave hit the negative amplitude. In other words, "The moment we were unluckiest", AKA "The moment we would have to spend money on it, but I glitched". Now I know for a fact that the Glitch can be predicted with a White Iro Ability, meaning I could possibly reverse-engineer and fix it!

"Sorry for making you pay for all this..." Mademoiselle hugged her dog plush tightly with a whimper, "Despite being so talented and good at everything, you were just so unlucky today. I-I should sue that arcade, or at least use my authority as a member of the Student Council to get it shut down!"

"No, please do not. Kevin would kill me for sure if you did." I shook my head with a light chuckle, "Besides, I got what I needed."

"H-Huh?" She blushed, hugging the dog plushie even tighter, "I-Is that so, hehe...!"

"Yeah." I smiled, looking at the distant sunset as I thought of the next step to solve the mystery, "For today, it is mission accomplished."