New Student Group Portrait

Tokyo Koudo Ikusei High School. This grand academy, standing on an artificial island far from the clamor of the city, was a name that thundered through the Japanese education world and society at large. It was renowned for its near-perfect rate of advancement to higher education and top-tier corporate employment, and even more so for its extraordinary campus freedom and a unique, rigorous system of student cultivation and selection. Here, "ability" was the supreme standard, and the measure of ability extended beyond academic grades to encompass personal quality, potential, and controllability.

From the moment new students entered, they were precisely divided into four distinct classes based on their entrance test—a comprehensive assessment covering written exams, interviews, physical fitness, psychological evaluation, and more. This initial division was like an invisible brand, hinting to some extent at their likely development trajectory over the next three years and the resources the school would allocate to them:

● Class A: Stable Top Students (Good Products): These students gathered those with top academic scores, stable psychological profiles, balanced comprehensive abilities, and high adaptability to rules. They were the elite seeds the school focused on cultivating, representing the "good products" that best met traditional elite education expectations.

● Class B: Mediocre Talents and Those to Be Observed: This class had the most diverse membership. The main body consisted of "mediocre talents"—students with good or average academic performance, relatively stable personalities, and no obvious shortcomings or advantages. It also included some students with outstanding academic records but minor issues or uncertainties in other evaluation dimensions (such as psychological state, past experiences, or potential risks), who needed a gentler environment for guidance and observation (for example, a student who showed astonishing charisma and leadership potential in the interview but whose evaluation report indicated slight psychological fluctuations or specific stressors).

● Class C: Primarily Those with Academic Weaknesses: This class mainly comprised students with relatively lagging academic performance or clear deficiencies in study habits or foundations. They were at a disadvantage in academic competitiveness and were the group the school system needed to focus on improving academically.

● Class D: Problem Concentration Zone (Flawed Products): This class gathered students with significant issues in psychological evaluation, behavioral norms, social adaptability, or past records, assessed as high-risk or "difficult to control." Their academic performance might not be the worst, but they were marked as "flawed products" in terms of personality, behavior, or potential disruptiveness, making them a key focus and challenge for school management and guidance.

This was the "new life" Shimiya Kuki had chosen—a special environment that stratified students from the starting point and guided and filtered them with different strategies. With his original intention of seeking emotions, he was about to step onto this stage where value was measured by multidimensional "ability."

For the upcoming campus life, which he had never truly experienced, there might have been a faint, rationally based awareness in Shimiya Kuki's heart: this was a new environment that could potentially harbor "emotional variables." This awareness was less like anticipation and more like a calm confirmation of the launch of an unknown experimental field.

***

The massive underwater tunnel stretched like a quiet ribbon of light, winding beneath the deep, artificial seawater, connecting the outer port to that isolated island academy. A standard school bus drove steadily along the central lane of the tunnel.

Outside the window, illuminated by powerful lights, was a world of seawater glowing with a mysterious, deep blue luster. Huge concrete support structures stood silently in the interplay of light and shadow, creating a strange sense of isolation, as if completely cutting off all the noise and dust of the outside world.

Inside the bus, air conditioning sent out cool air, the engine hummed a continuous, low drone, and plastic seats were neatly arranged. The bus was filled with new students from various places, about to become classmates. Students from Classes A, B, C, and D were mixed together, forming a temporary community heading toward an unknown destination.

In the cabin, the air was thick with a blend of excitement, curiosity, tension, and longing. Each person painted a different picture in their mind of the upcoming boarding life and this legendary school.

At the front of the cabin, a boy with thick glasses and meticulously combed hair was completely absorbed in flipping through a thick new student handbook and a university preparatory exercise book, muttering to himself, his fingers quickly sliding across the pages as if trying to imprint all the rules and knowledge into his mind in advance. His plans for the future seemed already precise to the minute and second, his face etched with a determined seriousness. He was undoubtedly a seed player from Class A.

Not far away, two fashionably dressed girls with light-colored hair and delicate makeup huddled together, excitedly whispering about something. Their fingers flew across their phone screens, showing photos from social media, their topics revolving around rumors of the school's handsome senior, recruitment info for the fashion club, and which convenience store had the best snacks. Their bright eyes sparkled with longing for a free and colorful school life. They probably belonged to Class B or C, clearly pursuing the pleasures of campus life.

A tall boy in a sporty jacket, with faintly visible muscle lines, wore headphones, his body swaying slightly to an inaudible rhythm, his gaze vacant as he stared at the ceiling. He occasionally squeezed his solid arms, as if imagining himself sweating on the sports field, a smile unconsciously curling at the corners of his mouth. A sports specialist? Perhaps a member of Class B or C.

In the middle of the cabin, a girl with long pink hair reaching her waist smiled warmly as she chatted with a slightly reserved classmate beside her. Her smile was warm and genuine, her voice soft and pleasant, naturally asking about the other's hometown and interests, her words full of eager anticipation for making new friends and blending into the new group. Her presence was like a small patch of gentle sunlight, making the surrounding air feel lighter. This natural charisma made her a typical candidate for Class B's "to be observed" category.

There were also less excited faces. A girl with smooth, jet-black long hair, beautiful but with a cold expression, sat alone by the aisle, arms crossed, her sharp gaze sweeping across the cabin as if measuring the "value" of everyone around her with an invisible ruler. There was no anticipation in her eyes, only a harsh scrutiny and a clear sense of competition. The sharp edge of a Class A top student, or the wariness of certain "problem" top students in Class B?

In another corner, a somewhat thin boy with a hat pulled low over his eyes sat quietly, leaning back, his gaze lowered as if indifferent to all the noise around him, like a deep, unfathomable pool of still water.

At the back of the cabin, a few boys with bold hairstyles and casual postures were laughing and talking loudly, their topics occasionally touching on playful challenges to school rules, drawing sidelong glances from others. One of them, with a sturdy build, a defiant expression, and a provocative look in his eyes, had an especially loud voice, carrying an air of fearless recklessness.

Shimiya Kuki sat by the window, his head slightly tilted, resting against the cool glass, his eyes closed. To adapt to his new identity as an ordinary high school student, he had consciously restrained many of his old habits before enrollment, working hard to adjust his state. Now, with the bustle of enrollment procedures behind him, fatigue quietly set in during this steady journey toward the unknown campus.

He relaxed his body, his breathing gradually becoming even and deep, and fell asleep. Morning light filtered through the window, softly reflecting on his calm, unwavering sleeping face, outlining the slightly lean contours of the youth. The surrounding noise and anticipation seemed separated by an invisible barrier.

The sounds in the cabin rose and fell like a miniature social symphony—the rustling of pages, whispers, laughter, faint beats leaking from headphones... However, this "movement" mixed with various emotions was abruptly interrupted by a voice.

It was a clear, pleasant female voice, carrying a natural charisma and an undeniable firmness. Because it needed to carry farther, its volume was slightly higher than normal conversation, ringing clearly from the front of the cabin:

"Excuse me, everyone! Is there anyone who could give up their seat for this old woman? She's having a hard time standing. Please!"

This voice carried a sincere request, piercing through the background noise, and like a key, it instantly unlocked a brief silence in the cabin.

Shimiya Kuki was awakened from sleep by this voice.

He slowly opened his eyes. Beneath his thick eyelashes, his pitch-black pupils still held a trace of lingering drowsiness, like a deep pool shrouded in thin mist. There was no displeasure or emotional fluctuation on his face at being disturbed, only a calm as deep as the ocean.

He quietly let his vision adjust to the slightly dim light in the cabin (affected by the blue seawater outside the window), then calmly directed his gaze toward the source of the voice—near the front door of the cabin. There, he saw the girl with short, coffee-colored hair who had made the request, and beside her, an old woman leaning on a seat back, looking somewhat tired.