"Y-yes, Class Monitor Ichinose."
Shibata pushed up his glasses and answered softly.
Sato and Kobayashi hurriedly nodded too, their tense expressions seeming to ease a little.
Toudou Shizuka nodded to himself. Ichinose had a way of soothing people like a spring rain and bringing them together.
No wonder he could hold onto the top spot in Class B. That in itself was a powerful and practical skill.
"Now then." Kanzaki picked up a printed list and schedule. "Here's the preliminary tutoring rotation and an analysis of everyone's weaker subjects. Pass them around and see if anything looks wrong.
"If everything's fine, we'll start today.
"Toudou, Shibata and Sato are both weak in math, especially with function graphs and geometric proofs. Kobayashi struggles with force analysis in physics. We may need to discuss that together later."
"Understood." Toudou Shizuka took the sheets and quickly scanned them.
Great. Shibata and Sato were both in his math group.
The tutoring soon got underway, and the seminar room was divided into several small areas.
Ichinose explained classical Chinese grammar in a gentle voice, while clear, rapid English reading and explanations came from Kobashi's side of the room.
Now and then, the soft scratch of pens speeding across paper mingled with the conversation. Kanzaki drew a force analysis diagram at the whiteboard, while Kobayashi frowned as he tried to understand it.
Toudou Shizuka sat across from Shibata and Sato, opening a workbook.
"Let's start with the most basic concepts: the domain and range of a function. Don't worry if it seems simple. Once you have a firm grasp of the basics, you'll be able to understand more complex composite functions and graph transformations."
His tone was calm and patient, without a hint of condescension. As he explained, he watched Shibata and Sato's reactions, adjusting his pace and the difficulty of his examples as needed.
[Shibata Kengo Affection +2 (Current: 12/100 - Acquaintance)] [Sato Miki Affection +1 (Current: 8/100 - Acquaintance)]
The increases were small, but even a mosquito's leg had some meat on it! Toudou Shizuka's spirits lifted.
As he explained, he deliberately used clear, logical phrasing and concise solution steps.
This also reflected the [Rational Analysis B-rank] and [Information Synthesis B-rank] skills he had acquired earlier, making it easier for students with weak foundations to grasp the key points.
Time passed amid the glide of pen tips and quiet discussion.
Then Toudou Shizuka used a very intuitive diagram to help Sato understand the approach to a geometric proof that had troubled her for a long time.
Sato's eyes lit up. She exclaimed softly, "Oh! So that's how it works! Memorizing the formulas by rote never helped me at all!"
[Sato Miki Affection +3 (Current: 11/100 - Acquaintance)] [Simulation Points Obtained: 1 (Reward for raising a non-main character's Sato Miki's affection above 10 for the first time).]
One point! Toudou Shizuka's thoughts stirred. So that works too?
Helping classmates and raising their affection could earn him points! It wasn't much, but it confirmed another way to get them!
"Toudou's explanations are always so clear."
A voice filled with amusement sounded beside him.
Kobashi Honami had finished tutoring English at some point and come over, notebook in hand.
She leaned over to look at the problem Sato had just understood, then glanced at the simple, clear diagram Toudou Shizuka had drawn on his scratch paper.
She praised him sincerely. "If I'd met a teacher like you earlier, maybe math wouldn't have been such a headache."
There's my chance to raise her affection!
Toudou Shizuka looked up at Kobashi and smiled. "You're too kind, Kobashi. I noticed how quickly you take notes, and your symbols are quite distinctive. Is it a shorthand system? It's really efficient."
His gaze naturally fell on the open notebook in front of Kobashi, and the unusual symbols, flowing across the page like writing from another world, caught his eye.
At the same time, he issued a silent command: "Scan Kobashi Honami!"
[Scan Target: Kobashi Honami] [Skill List:] [- Shorthand (C-rank): Uses a self-created symbol system to quickly record large amounts of spoken information with a high degree of accuracy. Improves information organization efficiency.] (Target locked!) [- English Speaking (C-rank)... (Omitted)]
"Oh, you mean this?"
Kobashi Honami scratched her head sheepishly, though she looked even more pleased to have her work recognized. "It's a set of symbols I came up with myself!
"The teachers go too fast in class, and ordinary notes just can't keep up. So I thought about how to simplify common words, phrases, and even logical relationships into symbols. That way, I can keep up!
"Though sometimes I have to stop and think before I can read my own notes later. Haha."
She generously pushed her notebook a little closer to Toudou Shizuka. "Here, take a look. For example, this one that looks like a little flag means 'but,' this wavy line means 'important,' and this circle with a dot means 'for example'..."
Toudou Shizuka studied the page intently. The strange symbols seemed to come alive before his eyes.
With the keen sensitivity to shapes and structures granted by [Composition and Light Capture A-rank], combined with the logical analysis ability of [Information Synthesis B-rank]—
The underlying patterns and correspondences in Kobashi Honami's seemingly haphazard symbol system quickly took shape in his mind, as if he were unraveling a tangled thread. It was all clear!
He could not only "read" the symbols themselves; he instantly understood the thought process behind Kobashi Honami's system—how she used the simplest shapes to carry the most information.
[Target Skill: Shorthand (C-rank) meets simulation requirements. Enter Virtual Training Ground simulation?]
"Yes!" Toudou Shizuka accepted without hesitation.
His consciousness sank into the Pure White Space.
[Virtual Training Ground activated. Simulation target: Shorthand (C-rank). Simulation attempts: 1/300.] [Scene Generation: High-Speed Information Flow Classroom.]
There was no physical form, only a flood of mixed spoken information rushing toward him like a raging tide!
A professor lectured at breakneck speed. Classmates nearby whispered among themselves. Even the faint chirping of birds outside the window blended into the rest, forming a dizzying torrent of information noise.
[Information Noise Filtering activated. Keyword Capture Module loaded. Symbol Mapping Logic Analysis engaged.]
Toudou Shizuka's "consciousness" seemed to become a high-speed processor.
In the chaotic wash of sound, he had to accurately catch the core nouns, key verbs, and logical connectors—contrasts, causes and effects, and parallel ideas—in the professor's words.
At the same time, the [Information Synthesis B-rank] skill took effect automatically, sorting and classifying the scattered words and logical relationships he caught according to their importance and connections.
[Symbol Generation System under construction.]
The fragments of information he captured had to be instantly converted into their corresponding shorthand symbols!
Kobashi Honami's unique Symbol System Rules raced through his mind.
A key concept appeared? His consciousness instantly "compressed" and "reshaped" it, mapping it to the simplest corresponding geometric shape or combination of lines. ("Cell" became a simplified ellipse with a center dot; "revolution" became an upward arrow with a broken line.)
A logical connector appeared? The Small Flag Symbol for "but," the arrow for "cause and effect," and the Circle with Dot Symbol for "for example" formed almost as soon as his thoughts touched the words themselves! (Think of it as something like making a mark—only you can understand it, and it's more convenient.
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